The Legend of Zelda: Angels Four
by VoidJeans
Summary: Link's journeys after Koholint Island leads him to the magical land of IZSAMI, which is soon to be under the treat of destruction from the hands of the terrible apocalyptic Angels Four.


THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: ANGELS FOUR  
  
CHAPTER 1: GANONDORF  
  
'I'm holding him with my power.' Zelda cried. 'Use your sword, and deliver the final blow!'   
  
The light diminished, and she fell to the floor, winded.  
  
Link watched his sword brighten before him, glowing with the power of light, the will of all good creatures in existence in Hyrule. This was the moment.  
  
Link stood there momentarily, watching Ganondorf, or rather what was left of him, arched over the floor wheezing. Two evil glowing eyes stared right back at him, set in a foulsome face twisted by its own evil, with a stare whimpering a few feeble words of the horrible creature's outcome. It had only one chance to regain what Link had already made unreachable to him- now it had lost it. All it could do was wait.  
  
Link looked over his shoulder to Zelda, then back at Ganondorf.  
  
Then, mercilessly, he lunged. Blow after blow, sword swiping at evil skin. Blood spraying out from either side of him as he slashed his marvelous weapon. Ganondorf squealed with agonizing pain, not only through the widening gashes but the awesome power of good.   
  
Then with a quick and easeless movement, he plunged his sword through the being's skull.   
  
Time almost seemed to stop. Everything was still. The wind, once a great gust, was abruptly ended in an instant. Everyone had almost ceased breathing altogether.  
  
Ganondorf reared up onto his feet and leashed an almighty roar of pain. Lightning struck with great bolts from the blackened heavens all around them, and the wind gusted with such force that it almost blistered Link's skin and chilled to the bone.  
  
'Six Sages- Now!!!!'  
  
Zelda spread her arms. A small piercingly bright light appeared before her, a beacon to the other Sages in the Temple of Light. It disappeared, then she collapsed to the floor.  
  
'Ancient Creators of Hyrule!' Ramaru called to the other sages adjourned in that hall. 'Now open the sealed door and send the Evil incarnation of Darkness back into the Evil Realm!' With that, he held his hands aloft and produced a great ball of shining energy.  
  
Then the other sages. Darunia. Nabooru. Princess Ruto. Impa. Saria. Each one regained lost power and channeled it towards Ramaru to join his power. The world seemed to rumble with great power as all six sages' spiritual bodies interwoven and bonded with each other, finally rushing to a point in the center of the chamber and exploding, causing a dimensional opening. It widened and brightened to fill the entire temple.  
  
In the void, the Evil Realm, only one slow warped voice could be heard calling through the shrouding mist. The voice was weak but vengeful.  
  
'YOU..........'  
  
It stopped, then carried on.  
  
'CURSE YOU........ZELDA!'  
  
A pause again.  
  
'CURSE YOU.........SAGES!!'  
  
Another pause.  
  
'CURSE YOU.....Link! Someday..... when this seal is broken....... That is when I shall exterminate your descendants....!' Ganondorf's body, both living and lifeless, floated without meaning into the mist, eventually disappearing. One final thing could be heard.   
  
'As long as I hold the Triforce of Power in my graaassssppp...........'  
  
Link was now standing with Zelda, Navi floating around his ear. They were now in another void, but one without mystery or contemptness. Evil was not present here. The sky was clear blue and full of clouds, and so was the ground for that matter. Link stared at his feet resting on a seemingly solid ground, but staring down to eternity- and beyond.  
  
He quickly began to feel nauseous so proceeded to stare right back at Zelda to right his nerves. Zelda smiled in the corner of her mouth. Her face quickly turned solemn, for this was a serious matter she had to inform Link about.  
  
'Thank you, Link.....' she paused to reflect. 'Thanks to you, Ganondorf has been sealed inside the Evil Realm!'  
  
'That's great' Link said. 'Now we are free from him, forever.'  
  
But Zelda shook her head. 'No, Link. Peace will once again reign in this world..... for a time. I feel that you will come across him again in your lifetime, when you return.'  
  
It flashed to Link what she had said. Of course. This isn't his true form, even though it is. He has to return- seven years into the past. As a child. He seemed sad about it all, that everything he has done, everything he has made right, will be much in vain for his life. This outcome may never even happen when he returns. Link opened his mouth to say something, but was cut short through sorrow.  
  
Zelda put her hand to her bust. 'All the tragedy that had befallen Hyrule was my doing. I was so young.. I could not comprehend the consequences of trying to control the Sacred Realm'  
  
Link tried to comfort her. 'It wasn't your fault. I had as much to do with this as you did.....'  
  
Zelda replied with an angry tone 'I dragged you into it, too. It had nothing to do with your free will. You were, and still are, the Hero of Time. It was part of your destiny to banish evil from Hyrule. But I helped Ganondorf access the Triforce through you, so I must do this.'   
  
'But...'   
  
'Now it is time to make up for my mistakes. You must lay the Master Sword to rest and close the Door of Time.'  
  
Zelda stared longingly into Link's deep blue eyes. 'However, by doing this, the road between times will be closed....... Link.' She hesitated, then held her hand out to Link, palm up. 'Give the Ocarina to me. As a Sage, I can return you to your original time with it.'  
  
Link wanted to say that he wouldn't mind staying here, in his age. He felt important to Hyrule. Far more important than he would if he was his real age, as a small child. But....  
  
..he knew he wasn't right for this time, and he knew he had to do the right thing. He was meant to.   
  
He placed the Ocarina, with equal hesitance, into Zelda's hand. His hand was gently clasped by Zelda's other hand. She stared at the Ocarina through watery eyes. Her throat was starting to choke through tears.  
  
'When peace returns to Hyrule..' Zelda said slowly. 'It will be time for us to say goodbye.'  
  
Link stared back into Zelda's beautifully pale eyes. She held the Ocarina to herself. 'Now, go home Link. Regain your lost time. Home.... Where you are supposed to be.. the way you are supposed to be...'  
  
'I'll miss you, Zelda' Link remarked with sadness. Zelda tried to ignore this, but battered her eyelids in reply.  
  
Then she played a soothing lullaby on the Ocarina. A single soothing, familiar, relaxing, sleepy song, with all the power of the world, conspired into a magic tune.   
  
Link felt himself lifting up into the heavens above, passing through sheets of light, darkness, heat and cold, everything.   
  
'Thank you Link. Good-Bye.' Was the last thing he heard. Then silence.  
  
He returned to the Temple of Time, the gleaming grayness of the stone walls all around, with him, the Master Sword, and Navi, his trustful fairy.   
  
He looked at himself, up his arms and his body. Sure enough, he was the old child he was when he first started his journey, his adventure, probably the adventure of a lifetime. He looked up to the fairy above his head.  
  
Navi seemed to whisper something to Link in his ear. 'You have finally accomplished your task, and I have done what the Deku Tree asked me to do for you. You have no need of me now, Hero of Time.' She started to fly away, but Link called to her.  
  
'Navi.....' She paused in her flight. 'I won't forget you, either. Will you remember me in years time?'   
  
Navi fluttered in a pattern-of-eight in the sky, then brightened up. 'Yes, Link. I will.'  
  
'Well, it seems like goodbye, then.' Link only just noticed his voice being lighter in the last couple of sentences he said to Navi.  
  
'Yes.' She said regretfully.   
  
Link looked up to Navi. 'Pixie- tail.' He muttered.  
  
'What was that?' She called with mock anger, and shot down to tug on Link's right ear. He laughed and pushed Navi away, who also started to laugh loudly. Their laughter ringed around the stone temple.   
  
'Goodbye, Link!' She said finally, and flew away up to the large glass window shining down onto the Master Sword. Her little glow shrunk in size, leaving a trail of pixie dust in her wake. All Link could see in the end was a glint from the corner of the window, a few trickles of dust, and then, nothing. She was gone.  
  
Link stopped laughing in the end, and the corners of his mouth slowly sank down into an unhappy face. Link was back to himself again. He should be happy. Now he can go back to see his friends again in the Kokhiri Forest. From what he learned from the Sages, the Evil Realm isn't barred by time, so it's effect is infinite- thus Ganondorf would now never had existed in time at all to this time span. So now what he had done was undone. The Deku Tree was never poisoned by Ganondorf this time, so he was never banished from his hometown. The Kokhiri children of the forest, which had been his whole family all his life, were waiting for him. Had been waiting, in fact, for seven years.  
  
But........ he had learned so much. The Deku sprout had told him of his real past, that he was adopted by the Kokhiri because his mother had been killed during a great war. He had learned that he was a Hylian, and probably even a descendant of the Royal Family. He had learned of his honorary title he had been born with, and needed to maintain to smite evil from the face of Hyrule. He was, in many respects, different from when he first started his adventure.   
  
And what an adventure it had been. He had ridden many times across the land of Hyrule upon horseback, still reminiscent of the wind breezing past him as his steed would glide across the breadth of the land. He had slain dinosaurs, dragons, shadow beasts, sorceresses, all wonderful and strange creatures of any imaginable type. He had travel inside animals, up mountains, across deserts, through forests, into underwater caverns, beyond the grave and even through time. All of the people he had visited during then suddenly flooded into his memory- Malon, Talon and Ingo of Lon Lon Ranch, King Zora of the Zora People, Link, the Goron who was named after him by Darunia because of his great courage. Sheik, who had helped him throughout his journey as an adult. The owl, Kaebora Gaebora, who also assisted him on his adventure. Mean old Mido of the Kokiri people, who eventually couldn't come to terms with his disappearance. The Sages themselves. And Zelda. Many of these people are still around today, Link reminded himself. But they won't have any sort of similar relationship with him now as they did before. Some won't even know who he was. They wouldn't have met if Ganondorf didn't exist. In fact, none of this will happen again, even if he did wait for seven years to grow old enough to venture by himself. His whole journey, his emotions and life, were all gathered into the great Master Sword which he had pulled out. The Master Sword, lying in front of him, stuck in stone, shrouded in a dormant Temple in a time of peace.  
  
Link stared into the encrusted eye on the sword's handle, and sighed.  
  
'That was seventy years ago..............'  
  
'...my grandfather told me that story when he was alive and In his heyday, about how he had got involved and began the enrollment of Hero of Time. That was when he explained to me that if he was ever to perish, I would take the knighthood as well.' Link paused to grab his cup and drank from it.   
  
'So that began your journey outside of Hyrule?' Mentia asked.  
  
'Well, not quite' Link explained. 'When I was about twelve, Ganondorf had escaped from the Evil Realm via a wizard called Agahnim. He invaded the castle and possessed all the knights of the castle and killed the King of Hyrule. My uncle chose to rescue the Princess held captive in the castle. That was when he..... died.'  
  
'Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to...'  
  
'No no, it's okay. I coped well' He assured her. He looked around the smoky tavern he was in. Bearded groggy men were dotted around drooling over their beer, dreary eyed and in a dreamlike stasis hunched in the dim room of the Tavern. It wasn't a welcoming place at all, not least because of the faded wooden sign hanging near the door; HUMANS ONLY!.  
  
'Oh, carry on' she purred.  
  
'What? Oh' Link began again. 'When I came to my uncle's aide, he had time only to hand down the family Sword- not the Master Sword, but one which tided us over fair enough. Past that time, I experienced my first real adventure, as long and compelling as my father's ones beforehand, which ended with me, at last, destroying Ganon for good and the Triforce back to one combined piece. With it I resurrected my uncle to good health. Hyrule was finally in peace for good.'  
  
'So why did I find you out at sea yesterday?' Mentia asked.  
  
'Well, that goes back only a few months actually. Zelda was satisfied with Hyrule's state, so advised me to go sailing beyond the land of Hyrule to help others in need in far lands. I had only been sailing for a week- whilst traveling to here, in fact- when my ship was struck down by a storm. When I came around again, I was on a strange island. It was dominated by a giant mountain, of which a huge egg rested on the top of it. The people of the island had suddenly experienced strange goings- on the moment I arrived...'  
  
'Wait a minute, Link' Mentia interrupted him by holding her hand up to him. She had a look of doubt on her face. 'When we found you there, there wasn't an island for miles. You couldn't have drifted far, either, or else you would have starved.'  
  
'Ah, well, it's hard to explain that.' Link scratched behind his ear. 'You see, it turned out that all the trouble on the Island started because of my arrival. But there was more to it. As I vanquished each individual nightmare creature, they slowly hinted that the island would disappear if it were rid of all the nightmares and the Wind Fish.....' Mentia looked confused. '..their 'ruler', if you care to think, awoke from his sleep. My intermission into it strengthened the nightmares powers, because it seemed that I, the outsider, was the only one who could do anything about it. As I got closer to awakening the Fish, the nightmares made more valiant attempts to thwart my rightful doings. When I destroyed their greatest chance of plunging the wind Fish into eternal and permanent slumber, the Wind Fish woke- and the whole island disappeared, like an illusion. The last thing I remember seeing was the shadow of the Wind Fish up ahead, flying free from his imprisonment from himself. I smiled as I saw him, because, as long as he was alive, all the people who were alive on that island were with him.'  
  
Mentia stared at him for a few seconds. 'Mmmm. Link, you tell some good stories. I see we can save a few Rupees getting a room at the Inn. A story a night.'  
  
'And the rest, you basically know.' Link finished off his drink and put the dented cup down. 'I was stranded for about two days, and you came along and rescued me. I thank you for that favor' He stared into her violet eyes, deep into them.  
  
Mentia smiled back to him- but a workwoman like smile of appreciation rather than just friendliness. 'Yes, that was fortunate that I appeared at that time to rescue you. It is also fortunate that I was on my way here too, to Mochaku Bay. If you are heading in the same direction as me, then we shall accompany each other.'  
  
Link shrugged. 'I don't have much of a choice. I don't have a boat to leave here, so I'm stranded.'  
  
The door of the Tavern swung open. A shaggy haired, overweight mess of a man stood at the doorway, contrasting with the bright daylight from outside. He waddled over to the counter and chucked a rupee onto the bar. 'The usual.' He gruffed. Link could swear that he saw dust blown off his bushy mustache when he spoke.   
  
He took his mug and sat on a stool near Link and Mentia. Yet more dust flew away as he whumped onto the seat and delved into his mug. He placed his mug down and glanced at the two new people in the corner of the room. Link could make out a bit more of the man's clothing, through all the layers of soot. He was wearing a purple pair of pants, and had a dull yellow top.  
  
He spotted Link's shield and saw the Triforce emblem on it. His eyes widened. 'Hey, kid!'  
  
Link tried to ignore him, but he was already standing up, and now made his way towards them.  
  
'Kid. Is that a Hylian Shield?'  
  
Link looked at him from the corners of his eyes. 'What is it to you?' He asked in a semi- polite manner.  
  
'That's a Hylian Shield, isn't it?'  
  
Link slowly nodded. 'Yes, it is.'  
  
'So you're from Hyrule, right?'  
  
'Yes.'  
  
The grotty man pulled a stool up to him and sat awkwardly on it. 'Y' know, I knew someone from Hyrule. A long time ago. His name's Ingo. Know that name?'  
  
Ingo! He remember his grandfather talking about him. He worked with Talon on the old Ranch in Hyrule. 'It rings a bell, yes.'  
  
'He's my granddad. Did you know that?'  
  
Oh. 'No, I didn't.'  
  
'He would have been the owner of Lon Lon Ranch, y' know. But the Hylians gave the job to Talon, his brother. Ingo had to live the rest of his life as a lowly worker on the farm. And so have I'  
  
Oh dear.  
  
The man leaned closer to whisper in his ear. He smelt of salt, fish and alcohol. 'And ever since then I, Korut, have had to scrounge around this bay, working for scraps, while Talon and the Hylians have live luxurious lives.'  
  
The man suddenly leapt to life and grabbed for Link. Link grabbed Korut's head, then twisted himself behind him to place his arm around Korut's neck. He held him there for a few seconds, Korut's arms reaching around himself, before tensing his arm muscles to squeeze his throat a bit. He let go and Korut fell on the floor, wheezing.   
  
'Talon was a good man, and so are Hylians. You had what came to you, and you deserve every bit.' With that, Link packed his equipment and calmly walked out of the Tavern into the open air. Mentia followed behind him.  
  
'Seems you can take care of yourself well enough.' Mentia remarked. 'Perhaps you are the hero you make yourself out to be.'  
  
'Well, I AM the Hero of Time.' Link mentioned smugly.  
  
CHAPTER 2: MENTIA  
  
Mentia spent the whole afternoon organizing her ship, ready for her trip. She traveled with a few motley crewmen, but she could manage herself if need be, she told Link. In fact, it was her who spotted him floating in the sea on the remains of his ship.   
  
'I will keep a pact with you, Link, for your help shall be needed along with mine as well.' She said. 'When our job has been finished, I will sail you home to Hyrule.'  
  
'That would be most appreciated.' Link replied.  
  
Link slowly walked along the bleached white pier, kicking stray stones off into the murky water below. The water plopped as the stones fell in, and produced a little sand cloud when they hit the sandy bottom. Bright puffy clouds bloomed on the horizon in a warm blue sky, barely tinged with a purple hue from the sun nearing the sea and off the edge of the world. The air was chill and smelled of salt. Gulls were flapping about lazily, and landed anywhere they so fancied, landing on the ground and pointlessly picking at a sand grain that so happened to be nearby. One landed just a few meters from Link to rest. Link kept still and observed it cautiously. Its head twitched as it turned to survey the surrounding, preened its fluffed up feathers behind its wing, before it spread its wings and set sail further down the pier.  
  
Link glanced back at Mentia, readying her supplies. Link was wondering why her crewmen weren't there doing what she was busy with now, then realized why- they had all gone to the Tavern. When traveling for weeks on end, combined with the salt of the sea drying your taste buds and sobering you up, you would look forward to nothing more than a welcome site supplied with welcome refreshment. Even it that aforementioned 'welcome' site is about as homely as Death Mountain Crater.  
  
Link was aware of footsteps walking towards him from the ship. He turned, to see Mentia. 'Are you ready, Link?'   
  
'I've been ready all this time. Let's just go.' He said bluntly and moodily.  
  
She pouted. 'There's no need to say it like that.'  
  
Link looked at her, then realized what he said. 'Sorry, Mentia.'  
  
She smiled back. 'It's all right. Probably all that adventuring you've been doing.' She walked past Link and towards the end of the pier. Link followed her.  
  
They made a visit to a shop, equally as run down as the Tavern, to stock themselves with supplies and food. Then they were off. Mentia walked in towards the mainland, through the long stretch of land where sand and grass seemed to combine. The wind blew across here and caused the grass to wave inland like water. A slightly wider sand track weaved its way through the grass clumps, which lowered and hardened until it became a rocky path way below the tops of the sand dunes, almost like a miniature valley. Up ahead the path carried on and reached the outskirts of a forest.  
  
A rotten signpost pointed vaguely in the direction of the path. Link could make out the Hylian text inscribed into it 'ISZAMI?' He asked rhetorically.  
  
'Yes. That is my call of action.' Then she stared at him. 'Didn't you say you were traveling to here?'  
  
'Here? All I was told was to travel to Mochaku Bay. To the port town. I was to find out what to do then.'  
  
She considered this last comment as they both walked into the everglade forest. A green hue touched everything under the lush green leaves overhead, and the shadows were dim but warm. All around them were post-like trees that reached as far as they could see up beyond the canopy. Animal calls flew through between the branches up ahead, both familiar and unique, producing a natural music reaching outwards from them.  
  
Mentia carried on. 'You were to find out what to do then... that seems too much of a coincidence, doesn't it?'  
  
Link looked around him. 'Actually, now that you mention it....'  
  
'Perhaps this was also prophesied to happen to you during your adventures. For a lone traveling boy to meet a wealthy, beautifully perfect warrior woman.'  
  
'Really?' Link replied. 'Looks like I have to wait back at Mochaku Bay a little longer.'  
  
She slapped him lightly around the head. 'Stop saying stuff like that!' She laughed. 'You're lucky I'm here keeping you occupied!'  
  
Link went back to being serious. 'It might not have been prophesied for just me. Perhaps for you...?'  
  
'No.' Mentia turned her face sadly. 'I'm not an important historical role. I don't have a prophecy.' She stared down to the floor as they walked on further. Link hadn't particularly taken time to notice how true she was about herself. She was, indeed, wealthy- she wore a silken purple cape tied loosely around her neck, and had a polished silver shoulder pad on her left shoulder. Her boots were pure soft blue leather- not only expensive, but also a rarity to find. Her whip was made of a tough material, similar to the material with which a Dodongo's stomach was made from, but more scaly and rough. She was also divine in beauty. A lock of her golden hair covered her left eye, leaving a single deep red eye visible on her face. She almost reminded him of the people he was previously affectionate with during the past.  
  
The past..... 'Hey, Mentia?'  
  
She glanced towards him.   
  
'We've been talking about my history so far, yet I haven't heard a thing about your past.'  
  
'Oh, my past isn't that interesting.' She replied, shaking her head. 'You wouldn't be interested.'  
  
'Why not?'  
  
'Because...... ' she paused. 'Because it's just boring.'  
  
'Oh, I'm sure your life hasn't been that boring.' He expressed, looking at the scenery. They had now walked a fair way through the forest, and it was getting darker. The sky through the canopy was an orange glow. Purple clouds stretched across it.  
  
Hesitantly, she started;  
  
'I was conceived when the whole of my land was at war. Then we were of two people; the people of the Good, the Kenchre, and the people of the large town of Kench. It all started an extra four years beforehand when the king was riding through his own land on his trusty steed. When passing through the forest, he came across an old beggar woman, blocking a signpost. This wouldn't have been a problem for him normally, but because of the king's absentmindedness, and his horse partially carrying away through free will into the forest, he did not know where he was or in which direction to go. So, he asked the old woman to kindly move out of the way.  
  
'Excuse me, old lady' He asked politely and with grandeur from upon his horse. 'Do you know the direction to the castle?'  
  
She did not say anything. In fact, she didn't move.  
  
So the king asked again. 'Do you know the direction to the castle?'  
  
Again, no response.  
  
The King climbed down off his horse and asked again, only louder. 'Do you know where the castle is? I need to get there before sunset.'  
  
No response.  
  
The King tried to peer around her to look at the sign, but it was no use, for her rags made her too wide for him to read the sign.  
  
'I will ask again' He said calmly but more enraged. 'WHICH DIRECTION IS THE CASTLE?'  
  
She stayed in exactly the same position as she did when he first met her.  
  
He peered more closely at her. Her hood covered the top of her face, blacking out her eyes. Only her bulbous nose and shriveled mouth could be seen poking out of the hood.   
  
He then gently placed a hand on her arm. He felt nothing, but then the woman sprang to life. 'You keep your hands off of me, King!' She rasped.  
  
The King pulled his arm back. 'I am sorry. Do you know......?'  
  
'Why did you pester me inconsistently and for no reason? You are supposed to be a fine King!'  
  
'I did not mean to startle you, dear woman, but I..'  
  
'You could pay for that with far more than just your treasury, foul entrails!'  
  
The King lost all patience he had managed to keep. 'Now look here...' He started angrily.  
  
'DON'T TRY TO PASS THIS OFF LIKE YOUR OTHER LIES, OR FUTURE LIES, FOR YOU SHALL REGRET EVER HAVING TRIED TO......'  
  
'ENOUGH, YOU WRETCHED OLD RAG!!!' The King shouted. He pulled his sword from his sheath and swiped cleanly for her head.  
  
The rags, and the mask, fell to the floor. A small purple ghost holding a lamp in one hand and brandishing a small knife........ oh? A Poe? They exist in Hyrule? If you insist...... It was hovering directly in front of him where the old woman had been. His small eyes were staring coldly into his eyes, touching his soul. The King felt a chill entering his body from the face downwards until it spread through his fingers, his toes, and infected his heart. With that, the Poe spun around and disappeared forever, cackling a laugh full of mischief.  
  
The King then returned to the castle and explained to the Queen what had happened. They kept it an utmost secret from everyone and anyone they could. Fortunately, it never escaped the walls of the castle. The ghost was never seen again and the King lived a happy life.  
  
For two months. Because by then, the townsfolk noticed something strange about themselves. One person in the town, an old man, had simultaneously combusted in an alley. People were shocked by the incident. The King's guards noted that where he had been standing, purple fire had spread out from him. Some of the nearby people had been touched by this fire unaware and without feeling it entering their body. One of the guards had been touched by it as well.  
  
A month later, more people had combusted, their whole bodies vanishing in a ball of flame, leaving a pile of ash on the floor below them. The guard who had been touched by the fire from the old man was on patrol in the castle.  
  
A servant rushed into the royal chamber where the king was. 'Your Royal Highness' He gasped. 'An unholy fireball engulfed one of the guards just now. Downstairs!'  
  
The King looked at him, pondering. 'Thank you. Dismissed' he waved a hand to him.  
  
The servant bowed to the King and left the throne room with dignity.  
  
Moments later, a guard walked in. 'Sir, more people have been engulfed in your very city.'  
  
'Thank you. Dismissed.'  
  
He left in the same manner as the servant did.  
  
The Queen held his arm and stared at him. 'My liege. This must be a curse upon your city. Do you think...?'  
  
The King stared outwards through unfocused eyes. 'Yes, the ghost. The ghost I had induced three months ago.'  
  
They were expecting the curse to affect the King personally, but it had not. Instead, it had attacked his townspeople, who were slowly being eliminated. Through this he might not have a kingdom left to rule. His people were being killed- he had to do something to stop it all.  
  
Through a long conversation with the church Priest, it was decided that only one thing was to be done- to execute those people who had been infected. This was not easy, but by three weeks time, through Holy pinpointing, they had rooted out those people, and they were locked into the dungeon, waiting for the slaughter. It was also predicted by the Priest that a regular death would not suffice. They would need to be stabbed through the heart to get to the problem of the curse. The King insisted on not making these executions public, for it would upset the townspeople.  
  
When the day came, they were killed. One by one, they were chained up, and a guard would stab the prisoner. He would go limp, and was dragged off to the cemetery to be buried- though they weren't considered good of spirit because of the curse, they were given good burials. The King insisted on that, for they were still townsfolk. The next would be chained up, and so on.  
  
However, the guard, who had been carrying on throughout the day and was feeling tired, miss-aimed a jab. It went through the flesh just left of his heart, gashing him. But he did not die immediately.  
  
The victim, through pain, screamed a bloodcurdling, air- shaking scream which reached every corner of the castle, and echoed throughout the town.  
  
From that day, rumors spread. People told others of screaming victims in the cells of the castle. 'They were killing innocent people' They told each other. 'The King's mad, I tell you. He's been possessed by Evil.'  
  
'He has to be stopped.'  
  
Then the riots began. Many and infinitely numbered, they eventually slayed the guards on patrol in the city. Then they barraged the castle. My mother, the Queen, escaped the castle, led by the best fighters the kingdom had, always loyal to the King. We escaped to beyond the walls of the town, and gathered.  
  
The King, who had tried all he could to care for the people, was cornered in his throne room. His throat was slashed.   
  
Three and a half years later, my mother, taught by the Elite Fighters, now lead the army who were constantly at war with the villagers of Kench. The General of the Army, General Latot, conceived with my mother. Nine months later, I was born.   
  
Everything from then on was basically the same. Twenty years of fighting the villagers, trying to finish off whoever it was that was, and still is, leading the people against my mother. Fighting, killing, losing great men of the army and gaining new ones, it was an uphill/downhill struggle.  
  
Then one afternoon, when my mother's fleet were at their resonated base, a vision had hit my mother. She was told, in that vision, of a land far away, that would offer her all the help she wanted, if she could save their land from oncoming trouble.  
  
She was busy, and I was not. It was as simple as that. She came into my tent, a wily smile on her face.  
  
'What do you want, mother?' I said. I remember combing my hair at the time.   
  
'How would you like to go on a journey?' My mother asked...........'  
  
'Then she gave me a ship, and supplies, and we chartered out to sea, in search for this place. A few weeks later, we found you, floating in the sea.' She stared at Link in the eyes.  
  
'And the rest I basically know.' Link added, in a similar way he did for his life story. 'That was a very sad story, Mentia.'   
  
'Don't worry yourself too much.' But he could see her eyes slowly watering.  
  
Then Link looked around him. It was nighttime already! They had been in deep conversation for so long they had continued walking on, oblivious to their surroundings. Their green forest had been dimmed to nothing more than a deep blue shadow of itself. Owls were hooting, and grasshoppers chirping in the thickets.   
  
'We'd better find somewhere to sleep' Mentia said.  
  
They found an open area of the forest where the trees didn't cover the night sky. It was elegantly speckled with stars, washed along a stream of blue cloud set permanently in the sky. They set up a fire to keep themselves warm. A few bushes contained edible berries and fruit, so they could conserve their rations. They finally settled down, their heads resting on separate logs or baggage, and they rested down.  
  
Link stared upwards towards the heavens, for they were open tonight. He believed that the stars were in fact representations of the gods and goddesses of Hyrule. If they were, they would be staring down at the world below them, conferring with each other about it all. Perhaps one of them was staring at him, watching the stars, and that he would notice and send him a reply. Or tell the other gods that he was spying on them, and then they would have to close the heavens up to keep their secret, and it would become day again.  
  
Link smiled. It was just amazing to consider what had not yet been thought by even the wisest of people in the kingdom. Even when people would have the magic to control night and day itself, there would be mysteries. Indeed, Link's father actually knew how to activate this very magic, involving a song on an ancient relic. But he would not tell him the secret to it.   
  
'Link?'  
  
He opened his eyes. 'Yes, Mentia?'  
  
She hesitated to say. 'Was Zelda... pretty? Or Marin?'  
  
Link leaned up to look at her lying there. She too was staring upwards. 'I guess they were attractive.' He replied solemnly. 'Why?'  
  
'Oh, no reason. I was curious. That was all' She turned over, her flowing hair spread behind her like a golden sheet of silk. 'Goodnight, Link.' She sighed.  
  
'Goodnight.' He leaned back onto the log. Boy was that hard! He wished he had the satchel to rest on, but he gave it to Mentia. Oh well.  
  
He wondered for a moment why she had asked him that. Then he spotted something glint, speeding in an arc across the sky. A fallen star, coming to the world and blessing it with magic. That was what his father had said, anyway.  
  
But then something odd happened. The fallen star seemed to fall through the opening in the canopy and head for him. And it wasn't a fallen star, for tiny sprinkles of dust was falling from it. As it speeded towards him, it made a tiny twinkling sound.  
  
'Hero of Time!' a tiny voice called out to him.  
  
He sat up and stared up. It came closer to him, finally hovering in front of him. It was a Faerie!  
  
'Hero of Time! I have finally found you!'  
  
Mentia was disturbed by Link nudging her with his foot.  
  
'What is it Link?' She moaned. Then saw the Faerie.  
  
Her eyes widened right open, and she bolted upright. 'What is it?' She asked Link nervously.  
  
'Hey. I resent that. I'm not an "it".' She scowled.  
  
'It's a Faerie' Link told Mentia. 'They're common in Hyrule. We use them for healing'  
  
She calmed down slightly, but still was wary of the Faerie.  
  
'I've been trying to find someone from Hyrule.' The Faerie started. 'I was blown over from there by a strong wind, and I can't get back. Worse, I've lost my memory.'  
  
'That's terrible' Mentia sympathized.  
  
'Yes. I know' The Faerie answered back. 'I heard that the Hero of Time was here in ISZAMI, and he was from Hyrule, so I tracked you down to here.'  
  
The Faerie floated gently down to Link's knee. 'I'm Siriee.' He added.   
  
'Oh. Pleased to meet you, Siriee. I'm Link, and this is my companion, Mentia.' He gestured to Mentia, who nodded.  
  
'That's great.' Siriee remarked. 'I'll have some good company to get me home.'  
  
'But first, let us get some sleep. Please.' Link pleaded. 'We've got a busy day ahead of us.'  
  
'Sure' He agreed. He flew over to beside Link, and his glow dimmed a bit more. 'Goodnight, everybody.' He yawned. Then went immediately to sleep.  
  
Both Link and Mentia looked at each other and shrugged, before closing their eyes and gradually falling asleep.  
  
CHAPTER 3: ENCOUNTER  
  
The morning peace was mellowed in by the sharp twittering and squarkings of birds in the canopy. An orange sun peeked over the horizon, barely visible through the forest.  
  
They woke up to find that their food satchels were missing, along with Siriee. Link looked around the premises, but to no avail. 'They're gone.' He said.  
  
'Trust that confounded thing.' Mentia muttered. 'It didn't seem trustworthy.'  
  
'I think you're being prejudiced against him. Siriee couldn't possibly have carried away our supplies- none of the small Faeries could do that.'  
  
A rustle in the bush behind Link startled him.  
  
Mentia cracked he whip, and Link unsheathed his sword and shield, ready to fight.  
  
A Faerie flew out. 'You're awake. Thank goodness!' He breathed.  
  
Mentia and Link both relaxed.  
  
'Where are our supplies?' Mentia asked him coldly.  
  
'I tried to wake you, but you were both fast asleep. It happened in the night. Three hooded beings were scourging through the forest, when one spotted the dim light of the fire as it was burning out. I flew to this bush and watched it all happen.'  
  
But Mentia found this hard to believe. 'Why didn't they take our weapons? Or money? Why only our bags?'  
  
'I'm not sure about that' He admitted ruefully.  
  
'Maybe they were just hungry and smelt the food.' Link considered.   
  
'Either way, we've got no food. We'll have to search for it along our travels until we arrive somewhere.'   
  
Link thought about this, then turned to the Faerie. 'Siriee. Did you see the way they went?'  
  
'It was very dark, and I couldn't see it very well.'. With a bit of hesitance he hovered above the ashes of the long burned out fire. Then it flew to a lightly beaten path through the bushes. 'This was the way they went. I'm sure of it!'  
  
Link walked over and studied the wet soil on the path. 'Are you sure about that? I can't find any footprints or tracks of any kind.' Relying on hunting instincts, he sniffed the bushes surrounding it. He wretched. 'Ugh!'  
  
'What did you smell, Link?' Mentia queried.   
  
'All sorts of things. Rotting food, corpses, gunpowder, blood- all combined. It was very faint though.' Link faced his other party members. 'Let us go, then.'  
  
They picked handfuls of fruit from the bushes and crammed any they could into pockets or bags before setting off. The bushes all around in the forest were sprinkled with tiny drops of dew, glinting wealthy from the morning sunlight. Far off in the forest, a strange beast belched and a flock of birds flew out from their perches in the trees.   
  
They came across a thin chasm in the forest. Vines and roots flopped downwards into its black innards, and spread for miles either side.   
  
Mentia spotted a low hanging branch from an over-leaning tree, and made ready to cast her whip around it. She intended to use it as a rope to swing across.  
  
Link spotted the tree's rootholds. 'Wait.' He called to her. She stopped and looked at Link.  
  
'How do we get across then?' She asked.  
  
Link pointed to the base of the trunk, then Mentia realized what would have happened. Normally she was aware of those sort of things, but she must have let that little detail slip this time. She was glad he mentioned it- but she didn't want to say that to him.  
  
'Don't mention it.' He said to her, as though he was reading her mind.  
  
Link looked at the trees over the other side of the chasm, then stared around him. 'Navi, could you fly-'  
  
'Pardon?' Siriee queried.  
  
Link thought for a minute, then remembered what he just said. 'Siriee.' He corrected. 'Could you fly down the chasm, both ways, and see how far it reaches?'  
  
'Sure'. With that, he zipped off with a tingling noise down one direction of the chasm.  
  
Link thought while he went. Navi? What on earth made him say that? He had no relation of her, or even met her- it was his father who had an adventure with the youthful Faerie. He would tell him of many stories and situations where he would have needed the help of Navi to proceed and fulfill his adventure. Little Link would marvel at these stories and would go to sleep with fond memories of this sort of thing with him. Imagine- a real Faerie companion! Assigned to help you through your travels! But the only Faeries Link ever found were the healing Faeries. People often captured them in bottles and proscribe them to injured folk, who would be instantly blessed by it and fell as fit as ever. They seemed nothing compared to Old Link's Faerie. Until now, for he now had one of his own to accompany him. Perhaps it wasn't quite what he had expected, for this one was a male Faerie (not that Link could tell, since they glowed so brightly their physical appearances stayed forever concealed). But it was His Faerie, and would be his companion for the time being. Even now, he had sent him to find out something for him, already making his trip much easier.  
  
That kicked his mind out of his though processes. 'Did Siriee pass by just now? I wasn't paying attention.'  
  
'No.' She seemed as anxious as he was about it.  
  
That worried Link. Either the left hand direction through the chasm was longer than they predicted, or that Siriee was in trouble. If it was a case of the latter, Link wasn't too worried- Faeries, as a general rule, are never bothered by anything. They weren't formidable or life threatening in any way to ward off creatures, rather the complete opposite. They were too small to bother about.  
  
Siriee reappeared- from the right. 'There is no quick way around this. We have to go across.' He panted.  
  
'But-' Link pointed towards the left where he flew off. He had a look of confusion over his face.  
  
'That's the point. This chasm isn't straight, but rather curls in on itself, like a horseshoe. I crossed over where the two points ended, and flew around the other way to here. To cross over, we would have to travel back onto ourselves, around the peak of the chasm, and walk around it again, which would be another day. We would waste an entire day over a hazard we could cross in minutes.'  
  
Mentia looked pleased. 'The Faerie has a point, Link.'  
  
'Hey, I have a name, you know' Siriee said crossly.  
  
Link was already looking around. He checked the trees on the other side of the chasm, but he had already analyzed that there was no way by utilizing them. He looked at the trees on this side. There was one large, old tree that stood practically upright and far above the other trees. It's leaves had fallen off a long time beforehand, though. This tree was dead. Link stared at it for a while, then looked at the chasm before them, then at the tree.   
  
He walked behind the tree, pulling out his sword. 'Move out of the way, Mentia.'  
  
She stepped back from the tree a few paces, pondering on his plan. Siriee hovered alongside her, probably thinking the same.  
  
Link held his sword out from behind him, seeming to chant an ancient word. His hand stiffened as the sword wavered in the air. In fact, it started to glow a fluorescent blue. The whole surroundings dimmed in brightness compared to his power charging up.  
  
Suddenly he lunged forward, shouted and whirling his sword, great waves of fiery energy whirled around him like the wind, singeing the nearby foliage. A large chunk was severed from the dead tree, burnt up in the air.  
  
Then Link walked calmly up to the tree, wavering in the light breeze, and poked it forward with his sword.   
  
The mighty tree bent forward, bark cracking and leaves rustling, increasing in speed towards the ground until- WHUMP! It fell across the two sides of the chasm, dislodging loose soil and stones which fell down into the dark depths of it. The tree was completely embedded into the overhanging rock.  
  
Link exchanged a relaxed glance to Mentia, who's eyes were bulging in shock, still from Link's Sword attack. Link stuck his sword into the ground in front of him and made a courtsey to the open passage.  
  
Mentia didn't even say anything as he followed Link over the log.  
  
Beyond then they experienced no troubles, and with the help of Siriee by searching the terrain ahead- Link's idea, no less- they made it out of the forest. And into ISZAMI.  
  
This place was nothing less of breathtaking! It reminded Link of Hyrule, and yet it had absolutely nothing in common with it, too. The sky was a cool blue, the morning sun reluctantly out entirely from beyond the horizon. Small wispy clouds were painted across the sky in fading grays, but there was also a lone, large, clean- white cloud, dominating all others and shadowing a far off mountain range in darkness.   
  
What struck Link the most was the central building in the northernmost center of this land. It was a huge construction, encased completely in a larger glass bubble. Enormous stone pillars curved along the sides of this bubble. From there, a small stream snaked its way across the land into a forest. But this forest had the largest trees Link had ever seen, stretching as high as the heavens itself. Even the Great Deku Tree would have been dwarfed by them. The rest of the land was interwoven with mountain ranges, lakes and small forests, except for a hill to the south of the land. The whole thing appeared to Link as absolute beauty.  
  
Siriee floated a bit outwards from the two onlookers. 'My friends, my home for the last six months.' He said in a tone that hinted he was smiling with joy. 'Welcome...... to ISZAMI!'  
  
'Wow.' Link breathed.  
  
'It really is something to behold.' Mentia added.  
  
They walked cautiously out from under the few overhanging trees of the forest and took in the sights. It was pleasantly warm, even in this time of the morning. The fields and plains of grass were a brilliant green, glowing with warmth. A very faint wind blew in the air.  
  
They made their way down the sloping hill, down into the fantastic land spread before them like a tapestry.  
  
'Okay then.' Link started. 'You've arrived here with me, so now you lead the way.'  
  
But Mentia seemed a bit embarrassed. 'Well, uh.....' She shuffled her feet in a childlike manner. 'I was told by my mother to find this place of ISZAMI. What I was to do.....'  
  
'What were you told to do?' Link asked inquisitively.  
  
'What I was to do, I.... Wasn't told'  
  
Link slapped his forehead in anguish. What was the point in coming here without a mission to accomplish?!?  
  
'There was something about waiting for the time to happen..'  
  
'What?'  
  
'The vision my mother had ended with an old man's voice, saying; "Wait for the Angels Four. Then you will know what to do."'  
  
Both Link and Siriee said together. 'The Angels Four?'  
  
'There's no point in asking me about it. I've told you what I know already.'  
  
Link thought about it for a brief moment. The Angels Four? Who would they be? What would they do? Would they send them out to retrieve items or accomplish tasks for them? If that was the case, then this whole thing seemed like nothing more than running errands for these Angels. Surely a princess, soon to potentially inherit a powerful army constantly at war, and himself, the Hero of Time, aren't necessary to do servant work. Or was there more to it?  
  
Well, if they were here, they might as well do something useful. 'We could try and get our supplies back.' Link mentioned.  
  
'Or get new ones' Siriee said. 'There's a village not far from here, and they know me there. They would gladly help out'  
  
'Oh. Okay.' Link was going to mention that all his weaponry was in his rucksack along with the food, but somehow stifled it in case he sounded whiny. No doubt he could manage without it. He hoped.  
  
'Hey, listen.' Siriee called.  
  
Link and Mentia both cocked their heads towards the direction Siriee was in. All they could hear was the sound of wind in the air, breezing through the varied oak trees dotted here and there.  
  
'Can you hear something?'  
  
'I can't' Link said.  
  
'Neither can I' added Mentia. 'All I can hear is the wind.'  
  
'No no, there's definitely something. Listen carefully.'   
  
Link strained to try and hear anything else with his long pointed ears. The ears of a Hylian, it is said, were so that they could hear the voices of the gods from the heavens. Out of all the stories of explanation however, this was the most unbelievable, as he hasn't heard anything like so in his life.   
  
But now he concentrated more, he could hear something. Mulled, but present. There were sounds of clashing metal, fire burning and people screaming for mercy.  
  
Link was suddenly aware of what it was. 'Fighting.... Do you think..?'  
  
'The village......?'  
  
'In danger.....?'  
  
She nodded, nervously. Then they both ran, Siriee leading them. They ran across the grassy plain towards the noise, ever increasing in volume. The screams and clashings were getting sharper, and the crackling fire noise filled the rest of the air.  
  
The village was now in sight- and up in smoke. The front of the village was smashed down, a huge hole beaten in the giant wooden stakes that made up the fencing of the village. Two lifeless bodies lay strewn across the passageway.   
  
They reached the hole and looked into the village itself. Countless people had been killed, lying about the place. Smoke from the fire blackened the sky and heated the air to an uncomfortable rate, also making the place smell of smoke. Anyone who was still alive were being chased by skeleton warriors, hunting them down and flushing them out. They seemed similar to the Stalfos of Hyrule, only less exaggerated in appearance and bearing no armor.  
  
As soon as they entered the premises, all the skeletons stopped; and focused immediately on them.  
  
They pulled out their individual weapons, ready for a fight.  
  
Three skeletons rushed for them, cackling a manic laughter and brandishing their swords. As one held his sword high, Mentia lashed her whip. She aimed it squarely for the arm- and snapped it clean off the socket. It bumped onto the floor, the hand still clenching the sword. But the skeleton still came for her, it's jaws open wide, almost ready to bite.  
  
The other two pounced on Link. He slashed his sword at ones waist, completely smashing it to pieces of bones, bouncing everywhere around him. They vanished almost immediately. The other skeleton leapt at him slashing his sword downwards. Link held his shield aloft, and the two clanged against each other. Link was shaken; they were stronger than they looked. But the skeleton immediately took a stab to his shoulder. It gouged it slightly, making him wince. Immediately again it swiped. This time he held his sword aloft and blocked it. Again it sliced, and again it was parried. Link was getting nowhere.  
  
Mentia still had a skeleton, unarmed but determined to hurt her. He was too close for her to whip because it would lose most of its power. Instead, she reached to her boot and pulled out a downward curving knife, holding it in her hand so it curled over her knuckles. As the undead being jumped for her, she slashed at it. It's jaw fell harmlessly to the ground, vanishing as well. The skeleton seemed shocked to have no mouth, but it attempted to attack her by force. He punched her in the stomach, whereupon she fell down, winded from the blow.   
  
Link blocked yet another strike from the skeleton, but this time it paused before attacking him again. Link didn't give him a chance to attack. From his crouched position, he slashed upwards, through it's pelvis, shattering the ribs into bony fragments and curving to the side so the sword finally went through the shoulder. It fell into a crumpled pile of bones on the floor, which also disappeared.  
  
Link saw Mentia in trouble, kneeling on the floor before the skeleton, so Link rushed at him. The skeleton turned as he noticed Link. The last thing he saw was the handle of the sword being thumped downwards onto its skull, which smashed into a million pieces.   
  
But now it turned on Link, trying to punch and kick him, even without a head. It's awareness was not prohibited merely because its head was gone. And now he could hear the sound of the other skeletons rushing for him, also laughing mercilessly as they advanced onto him.   
  
He blocked punch after punch from the headless, weaponless skeleton- obviously these being didn't know the meaning of defeat. Link crouched in his powering up stance and spun on the spot with his sword out. It finally finished off the skeleton before him and hit an oncoming one from behind him. Fortunately it shattered and disappeared like the others. But Mentia was temporarily out, and there was the case of the other skeletons.  
  
Siriee flew right past all of them, glowing as brightly as he could. All the skeletons paid no attention to him, despite his valiant attempt.  
  
But Link noticed something. They momentarily stopped moving when he did that. They were immobilized! Now was his chance.  
  
He leapt at the first one and hacked it to pieces, then slashed horizontally at the next two, lopping them at their torsos, the two pieces of the two skeletons all falling to the floor and vanishing. Thanks to Siriee, there was only five of them left. But now they had noticed what had happened, and continued advancing on Link.  
  
Link attacked them furiously. He smacked his shield into one, knocking it backwards for a second, then slashed at another one, but he dodged the blow. Behind that skeleton, another one jabbed at him. Link leaned back to the side, and the skeleton stumbled forward. As his legs were kicking back, Link chopped one of them off. The skeleton fell to the floor, but crawled along the floor to try and reach Mentia.  
  
Mentia had fully recovered from her injury, and took a few steps back from the legless creature to crack her whip at it. It's head was taken off, and it still crawled to her. Then she whipped its left arm off the shoulder, then the ribs, which smashed to pieces. What was left of the skeleton struggled to lift itself up on one hand, then dropped to the floor and disappeared.  
  
Link, after sustaining a cut to his leg, had polished off all but one of the skeletons. It simply stood there, watching Link and Mentia approach it.  
  
The skeleton seemed to hear something. It looked around the sky, then crossed its arms and seemed to smile. Its eye glowed.  
  
Then the sky turned black. Not from the smoke, which had basically dissipated, but from a gathering of storm clouds. A monstrous rumbling came from the closest clouds.  
  
The skeleton melted, laughing wickedly as its hideously distorting face crumpled with the rest of it into the ground and soaked up in the muddy ground.  
  
Lightning struck all around the village, an unnatural lightning, full of evil. Loud clashes exploded with every bolt.  
  
Link slowly glanced to Mentia. 'I think this might be what we were to wait for' Link said nervously. Mentia nodded her head.  
  
The largest lightning bolt so far struck the very center of the village. A floating figure in a black cloak had risen from where it struck. Its cloak blew strongly in the wind, especially as it seemed to have very little substance.  
  
Another lightning bolt struck nearby the figure, and another cloaked figure raised from the ground. This one flew over to the other figure.  
  
Then a third lightning bolt struck near the two figures, and a third cloaked figure appeared, which went to the other two. All three stared at the two people, even with no faces at all. It started to get very cold, but the air was still.  
  
The first figure started moving towards them. As it floated past, Link knew that it was evil. He pulled his sword out ready to slice it when it came near, for all he was feeling now was an intention to fight.  
  
'I fill minds with fear of friends and families' It rasped as it came near. 'With my force, I turn people into savages' It took a wide berth around Link as he swiped his sword.  
  
'Why did you let him get away you idiot?' Mentia shouted at him.  
  
'Shut up!' He yelled back.  
  
The second one floated past them all. Link felt a churning pain from his stomach, and realized he hadn't taken enough berries with him when he had the chance. He reached for his remaining ones and ate them. He saw Mentia do the same.  
  
'I fill people with weakness from no food.' It belched when it floated past. 'With my force, I shall reduce people to bleached bones.' It left a rotting smell behind.  
  
The third one came by like the others. Link felt a pain in his stomach. He looked at a berry he was about to eat- to his surprise, it had become a poisonous berry. He felt queasy.  
  
'I fill lives with misery.' It wheezed as it circled past them. 'With my force, I infect and plague anything.' The ground he passed across became furry and green.  
  
For a while, nothing happened. Then there was a rumbling sound, from high in the sky, from down in the ground, and from far on the horizon, beyond the hills.  
  
A fourth hooded figure simply raised from the ground. He was the largest, and appeared in front of the other three. Link, Mentia and Siriee just couldn't move. Siriee especially stopped fluttering altogether, but was still hung in the air.   
  
I FEEL EVERYTHING WITH MY POWER, it's voice called to the three people there. MY FORCE......... he paused, and the rumbling grew louder. TOUCHED EVERYTHING ALIVE SINCE TIME BEGAN.   
  
WITH ALL OUR POWERS TOGETHER, hey all said together, WE ARE THE ANGELS FOUR!!!!  
  
There was a flash, and they were gone. The village was back to normal. People stood all around, even those who were killed which had been revived. Everybody there looked confused.  
  
Especially Link, Mentia and Siriee. For this was only the start of their adventure.  
  
CHAPTER 4: NIGSEK  
  
The travelers were indeed welcomed into the village and befriended by all the people of there. They had even given back Link and Mentia's backpacks, and all the food was renewed. 'When we found it, all of the food was rotten and covered with fungi.'  
  
Link looked into his bag and pulled out his hook-shot. Another artifact that was passed down through family generations was a bag that could store much more weaponry, items and such than any regular bag could. It was very useful.  
  
'What on Hyrule..?'  
  
'What is it? What's wrong?' Mentia asked him.  
  
He pulled out his hook-shot and showed it to the three people. It had suddenly grown into an evil weapon, with spikes jutting from every corner of the item, and the point of it was now barbed and lengthened to a mere pinpoint.  
  
'Was it like that before?'  
  
Link shook his head. He pulled out other weapons which he had gathered during the years, and each one had been similarly warped to hatred. The bombs were bulging and very sensitive to any sensory prompting; His ice and fire wands had lengthened and now wore dark jewels embedded into their tops, even the magic powder now smelled awful.  
  
'Perhaps we can use this to our advantage' Mentia said. 'Try something out.'  
  
Link pulled out the Hook-shot, which seemed the safest bet. He aimed it to the ground a few meters away, pulled the handle, and let go. The point of it flew out and whizzed towards the ground. Link momentarily saw the chain, which had become nothing more than barbed wire.  
  
BANG! The point of it exploded and caused chunks of mud and dirt to fly out. Everybody in the village looked in awe at the now sudden crater in the ground, as did Link and Mentia. Siriee didn't seem bothered.  
  
'Wow!' Mentia remarked. 'I presume it didn't do that either.'  
  
'That's right. It wasn't even meant to hurt anything, only used to pull me over when I clamped it onto a tree branch or rough stone.'  
  
Mentia nodded in agreement. 'I see your concern. If you were to use that unaware of its effect, you could destroy the target entirely- and therefore have no means to proceed onwards'   
  
'That has been touched by the power of War.' A voice said calmly behind them.  
  
Link, Mentia and Siriee turned to see who it was. The villager who gave them the bag walked off and carried on doing everyday chores.  
  
An old man stood there, holding a stick to keep him balanced. He was aged, ragged and seemed sick. Yet, as Link looked into his eyes, he saw a sparkle of happiness and life still within him. As he stared at him, he couldn't help but smile.  
  
'You two come in to my hut. I shall explain it all.' He turned and shuffled to a nearby hut. Link and Mentia followed.  
  
'The little Faerie woman cannot come in, however.' The old man mentioned.  
  
'Hmph!' Siriee flew off around the village watching the people go about their business.  
  
'She seems short tempered' The old man whispered to Link.  
  
'That's because he's a man.' Link whispered back to him.  
  
'Oh.'  
  
The hut was pleasantly warm. Rugs were hung on the walls and lain across the floor. Scents were hung from the ceiling, burning lightly and producing not only a soothing glow, but also a smell that caused Link to think clearly. A bundle of paper scraps were tied together with loose string, and piled alongside other hardback books in a pile sitting in one corner of the room. The old man took this bundled of paper and began reading from it.  
  
'Two fine fighters from far away land, converging to save our land from the Angels Four.' He looked at both of them. 'Yes, we seemed to have our fighters. They just need to fill their end of the prophecy in.'  
  
He walked to his chair near the pile of books and eased himself slowly into it. His old bones seem to crack as he levered himself in. 'I am Stokitle III, and I am leader of Stokitle Village, the village you are currently in.'  
  
'Nice to meet you, Stokitle' Mentia smiled at him. 'I am Mentia of Kench'  
  
'And I am Link of Hyrule' Link said boldly.   
  
'We have met acquaintances now, so we can begin. No doubt neither of you have set foot in this land before. '  
  
'Siriee has.' Link corrected him. 'For six months now.'  
  
'Pah. That little Faerie has visited our village many times before. All the villagers get on with the thing except me. Within time, Siriee avoided me as well.'  
  
'So where do we begin, Stokitle? Where exactly are we?' Link asked.  
  
'And who were those beings outside just a while ago?' Said Mentia.  
  
'This place is the land of ISZAMI, where primitive courage and advanced intelligence are combined as one to help us prosper. All the most advanced members of each race of people in ISZAMI are confined to the highest ranking point in the whole land; ISZAMI DOME.'  
  
'The large city I saw under the bubble of glass!' Link exclaimed.  
  
Stokitle smiled. 'Exactly. That glass covering is energy of Light. Absolutely no darkness can penetrate it. Unfortunately, neither can anyone on the outside of it- us, in different words. They proceeded to increase further the unlikelyhood of Evil entering into the city of Gold.'  
  
'That sounds like an act of selfishness to me.' Mentia remarked.  
  
'It may seem that way, but in fact they are doing it for the good of the whole land. The very core of the city, from a chip of a Sacred object created millennia ago, spreads the light across the city and seeps out into everything beyond. This light fills all people, creatures and plants of the city with knowledge, which leads to ultimate power. When it radiates across the whole land it fills everything with hope, and leads to peace and prosperity.' He spread his hand towards the village beyond the door. 'We may seem primitive compared to those in the city of Gold, but we have lived in peace for centuries because of this light.' As they stared out, everyone was happily accomplishing jobs around the village, selling goods, harvesting crops, building huts. They all seemed to work by their own song.  
  
'But if Evil was to enter the city' He began coldly. 'If Evil was ever to enter the city........ our lives would be finished. The blackness would kill everyone in the city instantly, but the deaths of everyone else in the land of ISZAMI would take years. We would go through the horrible torment that the enlightened people would have experienced in seconds, but ours would be more painful, more horrible and more sorrowful. Each day would be woken with screaming anguish, as would the end of the day. Eventually we would all just rot away, forever.'   
  
Link pictured what the land would have looked like if that was to happen. A red sky covered in charcoal black clouds, blotting out the sun almost entirely, leaving it as a mere white blot in the sky. The land would be heated to a dizzying matter, and the air stuffy and stenched with rot. People and creatures lying on the ground in utter anguish, their incentive to live on lost years before. The Dome stayed shattered and empty, like it had since the first day of darkness.   
  
'By Din's fire...' Link gasped.  
  
'You have experienced the vision I had sent you? Then you are of Good spirit'  
  
'uuhh.... Thank you?' Link seemed dazed.  
  
'You were the one that sent the vision to my mother?' Mentia asked.  
  
'Yes, that was me.' He cocked his head at her, examining her face. 'Did you say your mother got the vision?'  
  
'That's right. She was occupied, so sent me to help.'  
  
He seemed disappointed. 'Let's just hope you're as fine a warrior as your mother is.' After a pause, he carried on again. 'Mentia, I will answer your question now, as I was going to when I called you here.'  
  
'In recent years, the forces of Darkness strengthened. The chipped piece of the Sacred Object dimmed for a brief moment. In that time, four meager spirits flew out from the object and outside of the core. These were trapped angels, bound to the planes of our Living Realm. But these were not Angels who supported the three goddesses of the creation of the world. They were apocalyptic angels, which existed to counterbalance the forces of good. Because Good and Evil were constantly fighting in either minor or major forms, it was necessary that neither side won the war, else our land would plunge into oblivion if it was converted to either side. Yes, even when turned completely to good. The Three Goddesses were of Power, Wisdom and Courage. The counterbalancing angels were War, Famine and Pestilence. Three of these angels were of those counterbalancers.  
  
But there was a fourth. This one existed beyond either fundamental force, for it was neither good nor evil. This one was one which could touch all humans, all creatures and all other living things in this realm. This one was called Death. However, in conjunction with the other three angels which were of pure evil, this one was infected with that darkness, and became evil itself.  
  
You may consider how Death cannot be classed as evil, which is understandable because we mourn living things that die. But it's existence is as necessary to our living as life itself. Let me tell you an example; a young boy had recently died in his mothers hands in our village before you arrived, distressing the parents entirely. But I sensed a notion of badness in his heart- weak, but present. If he was still alive, his bad thoughts could flourish to evil thoughts, and then affect his motivation in life. He could become a common thief, or rebel against the village, or even destroy the entire land. We as mortals are unsure, but the immortal beings knew well enough as to what would happen had he been allowed to live. So as cruel as it may sound, he was infected with an incurable disease, and passed away while being held by his mother. That way, the balance of good by his living was counteracted by the actions of the child's death.  
  
But when Death becomes evil, its intentions for mortals change. It is interested in killing things entirely, whether necessary or not, innocent or guilty, good or bad, it would be killed. Everything would interest Death in removing merely because it existed. And because it was immortal, nothing could have been done about it.  
  
But these four angels were so weak and paltry, they barely had an effect on even the tiniest of animals. They would have to enter this world fully with their individual powers intact. And that meant through means of possession.  
  
Along the banks of Lake Krib, four juvenile boys were playing around mischievously. One was Dyson, and lead his gang of friends, who were named William, Feil, and Peter. They were throwing tiny stones into the lake, watching the rippling rings of water spread out from each one. Feil heard a noise like a whistling sound from beyond ISZAMI Dome, and Dyson noticed something flash from the huge light shield.  
  
The last thing any of those boys saw was a dark angel, flying towards them, passing through their bodies and touching their hearts.  
  
From that moment, they were never seen again.'  
  
'Over the years they weren't heard of, neither the boys nor the angels.'  
  
'Those poor boys.' Mentia sobbed.  
  
'But now they've returned- with vengeance. Each one has been settling into every corner of IZSAMI, slowly growing in power and with nobody to stop them. Each one has been waiting for the time- the final date, where their powers become so peaked as to be unstoppable by even Heroes themselves. They shall storm the Dome, overpowering the shield of Light.....'  
  
'......and to place themselves into the core, spreading their powers beyond the land.' Link finished.  
  
'That is true, Link.' Stokitle said darkly.  
  
'But, you said that they were immortals. How do we propose to defeat them?' Mentia asked.  
  
'You have it wrong, my dear woman.' He explained. 'Their angel spirits are immortal, but because they possessed those boys years ago, they are now mortal. Although their powers increased during the years, they have merged even more with their host bodies to such an extent that the children have, in turn, become visions of themselves- there is no way to get those innocent young men back.'  
  
'No way at all' Link said sadly. It seemed selfish and cruel to choose people as their host bodies. They were probably the same age as himself.  
  
'So what you are trying to say' Mentia realized. 'Is that they have become semi- mortal themselves? So we could slay them, one by one?'  
  
But Stokitle shook his head. 'Yes, but it isn't as simple as that. For a start, their powers manifest in an aurora around themselves. You must have experienced it when they came near you during your brief encounter.'  
  
Link fully understood what he meant. He was trying to fight when War inflicted it upon him. He was filling his hunger when Famine flew by. He was sick when Pestilence came near. And Death froze him cold for a moment. His life even faintly played by him.  
  
'Your backpacks were stolen by them the other night, I believe. Your food rotted by Famine and Pestilence, your weapons by War. I suggest you leave your weapons behind, so as not to cause you grief.'  
  
Link pulled each item out of his bag and spread them across the floor of the hut. They were barely recognizable as the equipment he left Koholint Island with. 'I believe I would have protested about this decision, but after trying out my hook- shot, I see I would have been mistaken to use them.'  
  
'If that was the case, then they were merely giving slight examples to us of their strength.'  
  
'Yes. They were only trying to scare you into giving up entirely. I hope this failed to do so. Didn't it?'  
  
Both Link and Mentia shook their heads.  
  
'Good. If they were being serious with their powers, they could have eliminated you immediately, by turning you two against each other....' With that Link exchanged a glance with Mentia, and she did so too. They were both sorry for their reactions. '.....or they could have denutritionalised you completely to skin and bones, or caused you to swell up with toxins and disease. Any of these would take place if you came near them to even try and touch them. Plus they are likely to be guarded with minions of the night, as well as setting up a lair full of traps. No, my friends. It will be far from simple.'  
  
Link scratched his head. This sounded impossible! The overflowing information he was supplied by the old man was more than enough for him. But now he knew more about the mysterious 'Angels Four' clad he felt slightly more intimidated by them. They weren't mere people, but beings with the essence of immortals. But the most important thing was, they're defeatable.  
  
'Beyond this village lives two magicians. They helped create the light sheet that covered the city of Gold, and know the spell better than I do. Visit them to protect you with the shield to overcome the Angel's aurora. They are in a cave to the southeast of Stokitle Village.'  
  
'Thank you for your help, Stokitle.' Replied Link. 'We shall leave for our task immediately.' He and Mentia walked out into the village.  
  
'Let me tell you though, Link.' He just grabbed his attention before he walked out. 'The magicians are both guarded by a monster, by the name of NigSek, who has lived in the caves for eons. He won't let them confer with you that easily.'  
  
'I'll keep that in mind' Link turned around to the entrance.  
  
'Oh...Link.'  
  
He stopped. The old man got out of his chair slowly, and walked over to Link. He placed a single seed into his hand.  
  
'This will help. You, and only you, will know the time to use this, and what to do.'  
  
'Thank you.' Link put it gently into a pouch around his belt.  
  
Link and Mentia waved goodbye to the villagers before starting their adventure for proper. Now they had a direction, in all meanings of the word, as for where to go. Siriee whizzed over to the two travelers and flew beside them.  
  
'Hello, Siriee.' Link said. 'So what did you do when we were speaking with Stokitle?'  
  
'Huh? Oh, nothing much' He murmured softly. He seemed to be glowing a lot less than when they had seen him last. Perhaps he was feeling a little down about Stokitle not liking him.  
  
'So Link' Mentia started. 'We know now what to do. Which direction did he say we were to go?'  
  
Link reached the top of a small hill and surveyed the land around him. The sun shone brilliantly from directly above him, casting a shadow before him which was nothing more than a small circle. A gathering of dark clouds loomed up ahead over the horizon, but the wind was blowing them away from ISZAMI. Link could make out a glistening spray from beneath the clouds, suggesting that they were filled with rain. Just as well they weren't coming in their direction- Link hated traveling in the rain, as it drenched him and made him fell less enthusiastic. Not that he would suddenly freeze out when it did.  
  
There was a path winding through a section of rocky terrain, running parallel to a nearby forest. The path they were told to follow drifted through the large boulders dotted between the tall carboniferous trees. He couldn't see anything else there, though. 'That way!' He pointed at the path.  
  
After a few minutes they were trekking into the rocky plain and up a relatively small mountain. They seemed to enjoy the trek, and didn't come across much to worry about. This gave them time to appreciate the scenery. Well, the forest which they passed around and were walking away. A few birds fluttered from the treetops and off into the distance. A strange flower also hovered slowly above the trees, then sank back down below again.  
  
Link stumbled over. He looked behind him, and saw he had tripped on a large, rounded rock.  
  
He stood up and looked at it inquisitively. 'That's odd.'  
  
'What's odd?' asked Mentia.  
  
'That stone was not there when I walked over here.' He bent down to have a closer look. It was a finely smoothed rock, indistinguishable from the others. Link went down to pick it up.  
  
It turned around with such speed the soil around it was twirled. Two black eyes scowled at him. Link drew his hand back, and took a few steps away from the rock.  
  
'Mentia. Run.' Link didn't like the look of this. Mentia was silent, but walked away from the stone.  
  
The eyes strained, then a large muscular arm broke out of the ground, its three fingered hand clenching into a boulder- like fist. His whole arm was covered with plant roots and earth.  
  
'Look out!' Siriee cried. 'A Stone Orc! A few villagers were talking about them, when some travel up this mountain.'  
  
'Did they say anything about how they got past them?' Link asked. The Orc's second arm was free, and now it was tugging on its legs to yank them out of the ground.  
  
'Yes. They ran.'  
  
The Orc had freed itself with alarming speed and proceeded towards Link. He drew his sword out and whirled it. Naturally it rebounded off it harmlessly. The thing moaned in a muffled manner, and reached out for him.  
  
Okay, second plan. He turned around and ran as fast as he could from it. The Stone Orc, unable to match either of the two's speed, thumped the ground in frustration. He grabbed a huge rock- in one hand- and lobbed it at Mentia. It landed in front of her with a shudder and caused her to halt.   
  
Link stopped running. 'This way!' He called out to her.  
  
'Uh, Link.' Mentia said nervously.  
  
Link turned. Two more Stone Orcs loomed over him, arms outstretched and reaching out to grab him. He could hear muffled laughter from them, for they thought they had him trapped. Link buckled his shield to his right arm.  
  
One snatched for him, and he jumped to the side. They watched him back away from them. The second one picked up a few small, sharp stones and threw individual ones at Link, bouncing off his shield with a clang every time.   
  
He approached Mentia, still standing by the boulder. 'Any bright ideas?' He hissed.  
  
'I have one.' She pulled her whip out, and began whirling it around her.   
  
'Mentia, what are you-'  
  
'Just let me try something.' She was facing the first Stone Orc, which had now picked up pace and jogged to them.  
  
She whipped the Orc's legs, and the end of it twisted around its feet. The Orc lost balance and fell forward, his head cracking on a sharper stone below him. He laid there, lifeless.  
  
She ran to the monster and pulled her whip out from around its legs. She noticed a blue rupee fall out from an earthy pouch laying beside it, grabbed it and put it in her pouch.  
  
'Link. Look!' He saw the other two walk straight past him and towards the dead Orc. They were whining in sorrow as they reached the Orc and surrounded it. Then they picked its legs up and dragged it away from them. They went onwards whining until they disappeared from view behind a large rock.  
  
Link was moved by that incident. Despite being monstrous, they had enough kindness in their hearts and cared for others of their kind. They had mourned the death of their fellow creature, and carried it from the battle scene, probably to give it a proper burial. Of course, they might have just dragged it away to eat it.  
  
But that wasn't the point. It showed that they were as human as a human being was, only separated by it's ugly looks. But this also proved Stokitle's point about Death; had that creature reached Mentia and Link, they would have indubitably been killed, and nobody else would have been able to stop the Angels Four, and this whole land would have perished. Death was cruel for the goodness of the world, it seemed.  
  
Link looked at Mentia. She simply stood there, her eyes watering. 'I didn't mean to... I wouldn't have done it if.... If I had known...'  
  
Link walked up to Mentia and hugged her. He was warm of goodness. She sniffed. 'But, it's what is needed, isn't it?'  
  
'Yes.' Link patted her, then loosened his arms to let her go. She looked up to him from beneath her soft curl of hair with her rich red eyes. Then she pushed herself away.  
  
'Look at me.' She laughed weakly. 'I'm an army princess, and yet I'm blubbering like a pansy. Well?' She turned to Link. 'Let's carry on.' She marched up the hill.  
  
Link seemed to realize all this time that she was not as tough as she made herself out to be. She is indeed a fine fighter, no doubt of that- he could see her getting them out of a lot of trouble in the near future. But she had pretended to be careless, hardy and independent. Just then, she had shown her true self. She wasn't going to end up like her mother. She would lead a happy life eventually.  
  
That was, if they ever prevent that life from ceasing to exist.  
  
An hour later the ground leveled out more. The rocks were reduced to a few boulders here and there, and the overall sparseness became clear. Up ahead was a cave entrance. A waft of air passed out and through them, carrying a foul stench.  
  
'This must be it, then.' Siriee piped up.  
  
Link almost forgot about him. But now they needed to be on guard, for the monster NigSek could be anywhere in the caves. As he neared the cave's mouth, he saw bleached white bones with gnaw marks all along them.   
  
They entered the freezing caverns. Water drips echoed to almost infinity from inside, and the ground was wet. Siriee floated ahead of them to provide the lighting. It wasn't brilliant, but it would suffice. Link and Mentia eyed every minute detail that they could spot.  
  
Mentia looked around to Link- and saw something behind him, stare right at her with glowing red eyes. A throaty gurgling sound emanated from it.   
  
Link heard it and turned to see what it was.  
  
And had his shield clawed away from him. He heard it clatter beside a wall nearby. Siriee flew higher up to cast his glow more generally over everything.  
  
Link could make out a largely ridiculous monster in front of him. It seemed to resemble a dragon, but was built like a giant bear. Its four arms wavered around him menacingly, and he stared at him like he was lunch. Judging by the bones, he probably would be, given half the chance.  
  
'Nig..Sek..?'  
  
The beast opened it's huge jaws and produced a deep, loud roar, almost blowing his hat off his head. The cave seemed to shake, and his breath smelled of carrion. This was definitely him, all right.   
  
Link made the first move. He jabbed at his head as it was crooned forward from roaring. He jerked his head up to reveal his belly, but Link's sword scraped it, making sparks fly off. NigSek also had a shell which he didn't notice. His back was covered in spikes jutting randomly all over. They looked as though they were made of metal.   
  
Link managed to see his shield, and jumped for it. He grabbed it, but the monster swiped at him, gouging the flesh in his back. It was excruciating pain, and caused him to fly forward. He dropped his shield, which almost landed outside.  
  
Link turned to find the monster drooling over him. It's eyes blinked, but they blinked independently of each other- left eyelid, then right. Link stared, intrigued. Then remembered the trouble he was in.  
  
Crack! Mentia's whip took out a chunk of skin from his shoulder. NigSek reeled back and seemed to belch a growl, wondering what had hit him. He turned to see Mentia, blood- tipped whip in hand.  
  
The monster stomped towards her, shaking the ground. Mentia whipped again, and it twisted around the monster's two right arms. He peered at his tied arms, then wrenched them back. It pulled Mentia's whip right out of her hand and further into the caverns, where she could hear the handle clink on the ground.   
  
Link got up and edged towards his shield by the entrance of the cave, wielding his sword at the great creature.   
  
NigSek's eyes glowed. He started to inhale, drawing his head upwards, a wisp of fire snorted from his nose. Mentia stayed where she was.  
  
The beast leaned forward and threw a fierce ball of flame at Mentia. She rolled to the side just in time to dodge it, where it passed her by and covered the cavern wall with a sheet of fire, traveling up the wall and fading away. NigSek blew out the smoke his mouth was filled with.   
  
He noticed Link, still crippled from the injury to the back and without protection. He stomped towards him, the cavern shaking with every step, increasing in speed. Link somersaulted back as NigSek snapped it's fat jaws at him, taking a bite of thin air.  
  
Mentia had pulled out her knife and carefully jumped onto NigSek's back, arms outstretched to catch the spaces between the spikes so as not to impale herself. She then grabbed for his bright orange hair.  
  
NigSek roared in anguish, spinning around in circles to try and throw her off. He barged side-on into the sides of the cavern walls, but the spikes on his carapace poked out too far for him to crush her legs with force. He eventually moved out of the caverns altogether, still trying to shake her off.  
  
She reached for the creature's neck but the rim of the carapace protected it from her knife. She didn't dare risk trying to slice his throat from beneath lest she wanted her hands chomped off. The same for his arms and legs. She couldn't get him, and NigSek couldn't reach her.  
  
Or so she thought. His long flexible tail could reach round easily, and started to whip her posterior. She winced with every strike. She noticed that this was his form of revenge on her for taking the chunk out of his shoulder.   
  
Link dared not try and attack when he was spinning because he was afraid of getting Mentia. But now it was still, he had the chance. As he whipped Mentia, he slashed for the face. He jerked back again, but Link managed cut the tip of his nose, which made him squeal. He finally shook Mentia loose and ducked downward, sending Mentia flying forward. She fell on her back, and scrambled upright.  
  
Link saw his shield lying on the floor, and reached out for it and grabbed it. The pain in his back was still agonizing, but he had to cope with it for now. He edged closer to Mentia.  
  
This battle was going terribly. He had his back slashed and his shield arm twisted from the shield being knocked out of his grasp, and she had taken several beatings through the fight. NigSek had merely a bruised shoulder, and that was only one arm. Its other three arms wavered about like it did before, and he was taking steps towards them, drool dripping from his mouth. Link decided to try and guard himself and Mentia, hiding behind cover.  
  
The monster saw Link's raised shield and saw the symbol of the Triforce. His eyes widened.  
  
'The Hero of Time....' It growled.  
  
Link, awaiting something dreadful, opened his eyes. He spoke!  
  
'The Hero of Time..... And I was trying to devour him....' The monster, once hunched over the two characters, pulled back with his arms beside him. He had an apologetic look across his face.  
  
Link and Mentia started to get up. 'You can... speak?' Mentia asked the monster.  
  
'Yes. I can speak.' NigSek replied. He looked to the sky. 'Oh, forgive me, great goddesses! I tried to feast on our lands only hope of survival. Please forgive me.' He turned from Link and Mentia, sobbing.  
  
Link stood up and walked around him. Mentia went around the other way. They both watched the strange creature cry. 'I am sorry, great warriors. I hope you can find it in you to forgive me.' He said as he looked at the two in turn, either side of him. Then he burrowed his face into his four hands.  
  
Link tried to calm the creature's nerves. 'There there, NigSek. We wouldn't have attacked you....'  
  
He straightened up. 'No, it was all my fault.' The roughness from his monstrous side seemed to fade away more, leaving a noble, strong voice. 'I hadn't eaten for days. I was starving, then you two came into my lair. Instincts simply followed.' He stared to the entrance to his lair, seeing the bones. 'It's true that I am a real monster- I eat people, and would have done no different to you. But now.....'  
  
Link was still confused. They had reduced a ferocious monster to tears- he still couldn't come to terms with this. Mentia felt the same.  
  
'I suppose I should explain myself, Hero of Time.' He turned to Link.   
  
'we were told by a villager from Stokitle Village there were two magicians here.' Link mentioned. 'We desire to cause no more trouble to you, great creature. Just tell us where they are.'  
  
'Yes. We will leave you alone' Mentia added.  
  
NigSek looked at both of them again. He took a few steps forward and turned. 'I can do better than that' He said expressively. 'I can show them to you.' He stood upright, and took a deep breath.  
  
Then a very odd thing happened. His head split in half, down to the base of the neck. It was as if his head had been sliced vertically by a sword. The two pieces of his head rounded off and slowly stirred. Then both halves of his head looked up. One stared at Link, the other at Mentia. They each had a tuft of orange hair, one giant eye, a horn protruding outward from the side of its head, half a functioning mouth and a thin throat. They both blinked separately.  
  
'Confused?' The one looking at Link said. His voice was somewhat lighter than before.  
  
'You should be!' The one looking at Mentia said. His voice was somewhat lower.  
  
Both Link's and Mentia's mouth dropped wide open. 'You are.....?'  
  
'Hey, they said you were looking for two magicians, right?'  
  
'They didn't say they were HUMAN magicians!' Both heads laughed.  
  
Link put his sword and shield away. 'But Stokitle said you two were guarded by NigSek...'  
  
Both heads nodded. 'He was right. We can't function too well as two heads.....' One head started.  
  
'..... so we join as one head to provide maximum effect!' The other head finished.  
  
They carried on speaking. 'I'm Nigrowb.' The left head said.  
  
'I'm Sekapook.' The right head said.  
  
They bumped together. 'Together' They said simultaneously. 'We're NigSek!'  
  
Link fitted it all together. The name NigSek- that stands for their two names! How very..... strange. Link just cautiously smiled.  
  
'So we've found you two then.' Mentia carried on. 'And you are to help us.'  
  
'That's right' Said Nigrowb.   
  
'Sure can.' Said Sekapook.   
  
'But first, we must get you to good health.'  
  
'And us, too.'  
  
He turned around and walked into the cave. They could see that as NigSek walked, it seemed to limp between both legs. This must be the lack of control they mentioned.   
  
'Oh, but we are being rude to these honorable people.' Nigrowb exclaimed.  
  
'That's right. We don't know their names yet. Lets get aquatinted.' He turned to Mentia.  
  
'I'm Mentia.' She said.  
  
NigSek held her hand. Nigrowb and Sekapook kissed it in turn. 'Nice to meet you, fair lady.' They smiled.  
  
'Thank you.' She smiled back to them and managed to politely blush.  
  
He held two hands out to Link. 'Your name, young hero?' They asked him.  
  
Link looked at both chubby hands, then crossed his arms and accepted them. He awkwardly shook them both at the same time. 'I'm Link.' He smiled at both heads, which smiled back to him.  
  
'It looks like we shall....'  
  
'...........Get along well.' He resumed walking to his cave. 'We have prepared separate caverns to accompany your needs.' They both told them. 'And I have some curing potion for cuts and wounds, and collected fruit for you....' Their voices became obscure through the echoing caverns inside the caves.  
  
They both looked side-on to each other. They seemed to think the same thing as well. This unusual monster was going to help them save ISZAMI? Surely this was getting out of hand!  
  
CHAPTER 5: STRANGE  
  
Link and Mentia followed the creature into the caverns. Beyond when they first found him it was warmer. In fact, it was getting hot. Link started to sweat, and Mentia fanned herself with her hand. Both the humans walked slowly to account for their injuries.   
  
The cavern walls were starting to go a deep red color, then orange, then white, as they walked further into the cave. They eventually ended up in a rounded alcove, quite bright from both the walls and a crack in the ceiling, light flowing down from it.  
  
'This is our home...... 'Nigrowb told them.  
  
'.....make yourself at home.' Sekapook added.  
  
'Thank you kindly, NigSek.' Link replied to him. They watched him walk in, followed by the beautiful woman, then the Faerie. They both shut their eyes, then they reemerged as a single head. Both eyes and halves of the mouth moved separately for an instant, then blinked into cohesion. 'There is a puddle of healing water I keep for when I injure myself. Further down that route.' Two arms pointed to a passageway leading off from this alcove. 'That reminds me- I have to take some of that for myself.' He looked at Mentia.  
  
'I'm sorry, once again.' Mentia said when he faced her.  
  
'Don't mention it. I'm sorry for the trouble I caused you two. Come in.' They followed him into the passageway. The ceiling was sloping downwards, as was the direction of the passageway. It ended with a pool of water blocking off the passageway. The walls reflected the ripples of blue from it, and made the general area glow.  
  
NigSek cupped two hands together and sipped. Almost immediately the chunk of missing flesh on his shoulder sealed up, as did the cut on his nose. Mentia took a sip, and straightened up.   
  
Then Link took a sip. He felt the skin on his back loosen and stretch over the claw marks, the pain dissipating. The after effects of the aura of Pestilence left his body as well. He felt whole again.   
  
'But we mustn't stay here for too long, NigSek.' Mentia told him. 'We need to finish our mission before it is too late.'  
  
He looked wizened. 'That is true. That is why I will keep my part of the retaliation short. Follow me to my alcove.'  
  
They entered in the white, lighted alcove again. NigSek turned to them both again. 'Stokitle told you of the two magician's spell of light shield. They should have enough power to bless your clothing and your weapons.' With that, his head split in two again, and functioned separately again.   
  
'Hand me your weapons, Mentia.' Nigrowb held two hands out to her. She gave him her whip and boot knife, as well as a pouch of stuff Link had never seen before.  
  
Sekapook faced Link. 'Hand me your weapons, Link.' He placed his sword in one large hand, and his shield in another.  
  
They both closed their eyes. 'Pass the light of good to these objects........'  
  
'.....to make them as Sacred as the Object itself....'  
  
'Sekapook's knowledge......'  
  
'...and Nigrowb's strength....' They held all the objects high above their heads.  
  
'Two become one!'  
  
Two beams of light struck each object in NigSek's four arms. The objects glistened and sparkled with all the forces of good in the world, and were all tinted with it when he lowered them and handed them back to Mentia and Link. Link observed his trusty sword, and saw the edges shine as he turned it in the air. It even passed onto his green tunic, and his whole body seemed to blink white. 'Thank you for your help, NigSek. We need to leave immediately, though.'  
  
'If there's anything we can do to repay you, please let us know.' Said Mentia.  
  
'There is one thing.' He stood tall, dwarfing them both. 'I shall join you on your journey, if you shall allow me.'  
  
Link stood up tall and stared at him in the face. 'NigSek, if it is your wish, then we shall grant it to you.' Both halves of the face smiled.   
  
Link and Mentia ate some of their rations, and NigSek scrounged around for a few rats to crunch, to Mentia's horror. Then they set off from his lair and further up the mountain. The sun was beginning to set blissfully onto ISZAMI, turning everything around them a golden hue. Man, woman and monster trekked their way up the side of the mountain, so they could survey the landscape and plan out where their next direction to go is.   
  
Trouble stirred. Two Stone Orcs reached out to grab Link's feet, and tripped him up. He scrambled away from them and watched them raise out of the ground, walking towards the party.  
  
Before they even had a chance to draw their weapons, NigSek leapt forward- and bellowed a ferocious roar so loud it echoed across the mountains and shook the ground beneath them. The Orcs even started to crack near their own joints, and their bodies were blown clean of the soil and roots.  
  
They took the warning with great heed, and sank back into the ground. The two smooth rocks that were left above ground burrowed off in different directions. The group then continued walking.   
  
Mentia, despite the time spent with NigSek and knowing him better, was still wary of him. She walked opposite him on Link's other side.  
  
NigSek saw her move further away, and he broke the silence. 'We might as well begin to know each other, as we'll be journeying together for a while. You tell me about yourselves, and I'll tell you about myself.'  
  
Link and Mentia individually recited their own pasts to the listening monster, taking an interest in it all.  
  
'Now tell us your story, NigSek.' Said Mentia.  
  
'Simple, really. I don't have one.'  
  
'Pardon?'  
  
'I don't have a past history.' He repeated. 'I just existed. I never recalled having a mother or a father, and never knew any different lifestyle from what I've lived for the past...' he counted his fingers. 'six hundred years.'  
  
'SIX hundred?' Link exclaimed.  
  
'So your life has consisted of staying in your lair, eating people.' Mentia stated. 'I can't believe that. There must've been more to it.'  
  
'Well, there was one thing....' He split his head into two again. 'We both can recall it better.....' said Nigrowb.  
  
'...than NigSek like this.' Sekapook finished. As they were talking, his walking became uneven again. They had to swing their arms to keep in rhythm.  
  
'Well, begin your story' Link prompted them both.  
  
'Alright....'  
  
'When the three goddesses left the world and created the Sacred Object, somehow a tiny chip of it fell outside of your land, Link. It fell to earth and layed there, glowing purity and good. The spirits in that vicinity had been caught in the glowing of the chip, and were woven into a land of magic. This was the creation of ISZAMI.   
  
However, life wasn't as peaceful as it was today. In fact, it was seeming chaos. And I was part of that chaos, for I benefited from the bad that flourished at that time. Everything was trying to reach for the piece of the object, but all was repelled by the aura created by itself.   
  
After time, the aura was diminishing. Some spirits that were infected by it and weren't part of the land of ISZAMI had decided that it needed to be protected from evil. But it wasn't to be cut off entirely from the rest of the land, for the whole land could benefit from its potential. So they built a city around it. This city was soon populated by mortal humans, which became enlightened from the golden splinter. They inherited knowledge from that object, and became enlightened themselves. After time, that city was known as the city of Gold.  
  
But it wasn't enough to deter the spiritual chaos. It battered the sides of the city, and almost wiped out the whole of the city from its continued aggression. Also, the land had stayed as barren as it had always been. Despite the chip of the object being free, it wasn't getting beyond the city. It was then decided that they needed a shield, to be cast by mortals so it could not be undone, that could radiate its power in modest quantity to the whole land and keep evil out. I myself was chosen to possess the means of prompting this talent, or rather the two split personalities of myself, along with three other people. We four circled the city and cast the spell. From the sides of the city sprung a great wave of light and eventually engulfed the city. Although the other three were invited to live in the city, I was forced to stay outside.  
  
Because, the spirits explained, the good of the land had to be balanced out by evil If all this floating chaos was removed from the land, it will become completely good, and will destroy itself. I was a single part of the evil that was to remain to counterbalance the good and keep ISZAMI in peace, in general. I WAS evil, and in a way I still am, but I never started wars or demolished towns or burn forests or the such- I just eat people. That is required of me, and nothing more, for all time. To allow this to happen, they gave me an unimaginable lifespan, as well as the spring of healing in my lair to keep me alive. Beings such as myself have been left around the land to keep this balance. I accepted this destiny of mine, and stayed in the land while I watched the spirits fly into the city to become enlightened.  
  
A voice called to me as it left. 'You will be needed again. Look for the three Golden Triangles.'  
  
A few years after, the chaos had been removed and the glow of the object piece had been spread over the land. The world was in peace, and I began to devour people who strayed too close to my lair. And have been for the last six hundred years, watching the glow of hope from ISZAMI DOME radiate once every year.'  
  
But Mentia was still a bit dubious. 'This theory about you eating people.. isn't that simply nature?'  
  
Nigrowb and Sekapook shook their heads. 'It would in a normal case, but I had been specially set up in a case to prove otherwise. From beyond my lair is an orchard full of fruit and berries, and there is plenty of animals there to prey on as well. I can survive quite well on this orchard, should I choose to. But I haven't even entered this place in many, many years. I have exclusively dieted on people, armed or not, that come close to my lair. That rat I ate earlier on was the only other thing I had eaten besides humans for six hundred years.'  
  
Link vaguely seemed to understand that. He also wondered if this specialist diet had affected him over those years. He wondered whether, deep inside NigSek's mind (minds?) he was being punished by having to travel with two human beings himself, and having to actually talk to something which would have by now ended up in his stomach. This would have been especially so with Mentia, as she had flesh piled in a voluptuous manner over her body.   
  
'Well' Link laughed. 'You won't be having us for food!' Mentia, Nigrowb and Sekapook looked at Link in disgust. He coughed and averted his gaze to the ground, clearing his throat.   
  
In the meantime they had finally reached the top of the mountain. They managed it in time to watch the sun finally disappear from view, leaving an orange tint in the sky. Behind them the sky was already bordering on black.   
  
NigSek took this time to point out the landscapes of the land. There was ISZAMI Dome which overlooked everything. There was Stokitle Village and NigSek's Lair which they had just come from. To the east of the land was Lake Krib- Link and Mentia seemed to be hit with sad thoughts, for that was the lake those four boys were possessed by the angels. The enormous trees nearby the lake were the Krib Treetops, populated by the Strange.  
  
'The who?' Siriee inquired.  
  
Link was becoming ever more absentminded about the Faerie boy. Mind you, he hadn't spoken a word in nearly a day. Nevertheless, he had a point. 'Aren't they offended by being called that?' He asked NigSek.  
  
He chuckled. 'They are actually quite proud of it. You haven't seen them yet, anyway.'  
  
But NigSek was looking at something further off into the distance. Link stared out into the same direction, and saw what he had seen.   
  
To the west of ISZAMI DOME was a small desert. They could see a great swarm of black specks in that desert, with flames coming from some of them, and small tents around them as well. There was an army, and they had a rough estimate of what it entitled.  
  
'That must be War's great Power in manifest.' NigSek stated. 'When the darkness spreads across the land, they will invade and destroy the city of Gold. They must be stopped.'  
  
'That surely must be impossible!' Mentia said in terror. 'There must be millions there, all armed and deadly.'  
  
'And they're on the other side of ISZAMI.' Link mentioned. 'By the time we reach there it would be too late.'  
  
But NigSek had an idea. 'We should then visit the Strange in the Krib Treetops. Their leader, Pengal, will be able to assist.' He walked back down the mountain in the Treetop's direction.  
  
'NigSek, it's late. We should camp for the night.' Link called to him.  
  
He turned to them. 'I'll see to that.' He jumped into the air and stomped the ground beneath him. The stone dented, and the rocks all around jumped into the air. Link and Mentia lost their balance for a brief moment. He stomped the ground again, and he fell down further.  
  
He climbed out of the newly made hole. 'There.' He dusted himself off. 'A makeshift cover. I'll keep guard for the night.'  
  
Link jumped into the hole, and held his hands out for Mentia. She levered herself into his hands, and was lowered down.   
  
'Link, I don't trust him.' Mentia whispered.  
  
'Why?' He asked.  
  
'Well, he seems too open about eating people. He must be hiding something from us- something we don't want to know.'  
  
'I trust him. He wouldn't go into all this trouble if he wanted to do anything with us. We were trapped by him, almost good for dead. He almost incinerated you. He has a roar that curdles blood. He made this whole hole in just two stomps.' He looked all around him to prove his point.  
  
'But you must admit.' she carried on. 'There's something strange about his logic on being 'forced' to do evil in the world.'  
  
He was silent. There was nothing he could say to that, because he knew it was true. The story had seemed hard to swallow- it was a bit on the unbelievable side. And after all he had said, they were being looked after this supposedly evil creature. He had even shared his elixir with them, to cure them.  
  
But that was because he was meant to do that. He had recognized the Triforce logo on his shield, and blessed them with the power of light, and informed them of what to do next. He was doing what he was meant to do; what he had been waiting to do for centuries.  
  
'I think you're wrong about him. He must be forced to do what he is doing now, beyond his own free will, and we should be thankful for any help we can get, because we need it.'  
  
'He stuck us in a hole, for Farore's sake!' she snapped. 'He could be pushing a pile of rubble towards us, ready to burrow us.'  
  
Link had an idea. If he was true to his word, he would be guarding them, looking out for people or creatures approaching them. If he was against them, he would try and take advantage of the situation- they were, after all, in a hole in the ground.  
  
Link looked around for Siriee. He had followed all this time, but out of notice. 'Siriee. Fly up there and tell us what NigSek's doing.'  
  
'Okay.' He said softly, and whizzed up. He came back down again. 'He's looking around the area. Scouting for animals.'  
  
Link glanced at Mentia. She turned away. 'I'm still skeptical about him.' She laid down on the floor, resting her head on her rucksack. 'Goodnight, Link.' She said grumpily.  
  
'Goodnight. Mentia.' He whispered to her. He watched her curl up on the floor, going to sleep. She seemed very soft, her golden hair once again spread before her, her eyelids twitching. He silently walked up to her and tucked her cape under her chin. She raised a quarter of a smile, shifting into a comfortable position.   
  
He lied alongside her with his arms behind his head. He watched the stars above, before drifting off to sleep.  
  
The next morning, Link was awoken with a thump to his head. An apple had dropped onto him just a minute ago. He picked it up and looked at it, then peered up.  
  
'Sorry about that.' NigSek apologized. 'I misaimed that one. It was meant to land beside you.'  
  
'Uhhh.... Thanks.' He smiled to him. NigSek walked off, his footsteps fading.  
  
Link patted on Mentia's shoulder. 'Breakfast, Mentia.' He murmured to her. She stirred and woke up. An apple narrowly missed her.  
  
'What on...?' She started.  
  
'It's NigSek.' Link explained. 'He found us more food. There, he is taking care of us.'  
  
'Huh. Just fattening us up, more like.'  
  
A few minutes later, NigSek dropped a rope down into the hole to let them climb out. They then carried on with their journey. The party finally got off the mountainside and into familiar terrain. NigSek seemed petrified.  
  
'What is that spread around us?' He squealed.  
  
'Ummm... 'Link hesitated for some reason. 'It's grass. It doesn't hurt you, it just grows in fields.'  
  
He simply stood there. 'Oh.' He said, embarrassed. 'I haven't been off the mountain for years, remember. Grass wasn't here before.'  
  
Link politely smiled to him. 'It's understandable.'   
  
They moved across the fields of wheat green grass, fraying in the gentle summer breeze. But today clouds blossomed over the sky. They were gray and grouchy.   
  
Mentia looked up into the air. 'It looks like rain. We'd better hurry to the Krib treetops.'  
  
'That might be a problem.' Link said in reply. Mentia turned to face his direction.  
  
Ahead of them was a pack of lying creatures, diving straight for them. 'Flying Grubs.' NigSek cried. 'Get ready!' He started to inhale, wisps of fire seeping from his nostrils. Link pulled his sword and shield out, Mentia cracking her whip. Siriee moved away from them all.  
  
NigSek blew a huge fireball at the Grubs. Despite its size, all of them swerved to avoid it entirely. The fire dissipated shortly afterwards.  
  
He blew the smoke out of his mouth. 'That was a lot of use.' He coughed. His eyes were watery from the smoke.  
  
Mentia lashed her whip at the nearing Grubs. Crack! She clipped the wing off one, which spiraled down to the ground in front of them and exploded in a thick brown mush. The others swooped over them with alarming speed, blowing the grass back from the draft they caused. An array of brown globules of goo sprayed them all. It didn't sting, but pelted them with force. The force hurt Link and Mentia quite a bit as it pummeled down onto them; NigSek, of course, had his protective carapace.  
  
Link got up and wiped the sludge off his tunic. It was incredibly sticky. He watched as the Grubs circled around them, ready for another attack. He wished he had a quiver of arrows to shoot them down with!  
  
The Grubs flew in again, but they did not shoot. Instead they circled the party, taunting them. Mentia cracked her whip again and narrowly missed a Grub. Link sliced the air with his sword but they dodged his swipes every time. NigSek was clawing at them, also missing. Enraged, he snapped at one and caught it in his mouth- then immediately spat it out. 'They tashte awful!' He shouted, his voice gummed up by the brown sludge. He was spitting it all out.   
  
Link leapt into the air, spinning his sword. His hand jerked twice as he did so, and he saw two more Grubs fall to the floor in a brown mess. He finished with a downwards slash, getting yet another Grub.   
  
Four had already been eliminated, but countless more were still alive. They blurred around them, filling the air with flapping leathery wings. He could barely make out the characteristics of the little fiends. They were fleshy colored with large purple pouches below their tube- like mouths. They had little thin tails curling around them. They were quite unpleasant.  
  
One vomited some more brown sludge at Link's face, which he blocked with his shield. 'There's too many of the little brutes!' He yelled. 'We need to eliminate them in one go!'  
  
'Let me try.' Mentia grabbed her mysterious pouch she handed to NigSek to bless. She untied the rope and took out a pinch of powder. She blew it all around them. 'Hold your breath!' She cried. Everyone closed their mouths shut.  
  
A Grub flew into the powder cloud, and fell to the floor, dead. Another one flew in, and also fell dead. Three more flew in, but were knocked out, and bumped on the floor. They wriggled around, thrashing their tails furiously, then slowed down.   
  
The other Grubs, watching what had happened, flew back further. Another one breathed the toxic cloud in, and had his flight pattern disrupted. He flapped about, losing consciousness, then regained it and righted itself.  
  
'Nice one, Mentia' Link commented. 'now there's less of them.'  
  
NigSek, who had removed almost all of the muck from his mouth, charged up another fireball. He blew it at their general direction. It roasted the rest of the filthy creatures, who fluttered to the ground in a ball of fire each. They went in a puff of smoke when they hit the ground.  
  
Link felt a few trickles of rain fall on his head. 'It's raining. We had better hurry.'  
  
They agreed and walked at a faster pace to the Treetops. A day of traveling, stopping only to clean themselves at Lake Krib and to eat more of their rations- NigSek found a wild Boar whilst combing the forest nearby, and ate him in one gulp- they reached the boundaries of the Village.  
  
Nothing was at ground level. It was cool from shelter supplied from the massive leaves of the trees. They stared up in awe at the tiny huts hanging from the branches of the trees like fruit. The trunks of the trees were gargantuan in size. It would have looked beautiful, but it was ravished. The leaves were beginning to whither from the sides, and the grass below was yellow and in patched clumps everywhere, showing hardened clumps of mud around. The bark of the trees were peeling off.   
  
They found a member of the Strange walking around, very weak. It was, indeed strange- it was three foot in height, and its skin was gray, like stone. It had a large angular head with spikes jutting from it along a line down it's skull. It had two ear lobes on either ear, and had an elegant, bushy tail, like a fox's tail. But he was also starved, being nothing more than skin and bones. He collapsed to the floor.  
  
Link ran up to it, holding it up. 'Are you all right?' He asked him.  
  
'Uuuh...' he started. 'I'm knackered.' His accent was different as well. It was like his, but somehow less whining.  
  
'I.. beg your pardon?' Mentia asked rhetorically, confused.  
  
He lifted his head up with great difficulty. 'I'm tired.' He corrected. 'Do any of you have any food on you?' He seemed to say everything a lot quicker as well, but in a ragged way.  
  
Link thought for a second, then opened his rucksack. He pulled out an apple he had packed away that morning that NigSek gave him. 'Here you go.' He said calmly.  
  
'Cheers.' He took it in his hand and bit a slice of it and strained to swallow it. He sighed relief. 'Thanks, mate.' He said to Link. 'But your kindness won't be enough to save us all.'  
  
'What happened here?' Link asked the Strange. 'What happened to your village?'  
  
He spoke weakly. 'Take it easy. It's no problem of yours. We were fine until a couple of days ago. This strange bloke in a hooded cape fell down into our nutrition caves over there.' He lifted his hand to the west. 'Since then, we can't find any food, or nothing. The trees were losing their life, being starved, an'....'  
  
'Starvation? That must mean....' Mentia started.  
  
'Famine!' Link exclaimed. 'He's close by!'  
  
The Strange smiled weakly. 'Yeah, that's what he said his name was. He didn't want anythin' from us, just to make us die. And then he.... Then he...' His eyes were getting heavy.  
  
'What happened? What did he say?' Link shook him.  
  
'The Hero of Time, a warrior.... Woman.....' He breathed. Then collapsed. He had died, in his hands. Link knelt there, shedding a tear for the poor thing. Mentia did so too. NigSek looked at him with sorrow.  
  
An hour later, they had dug a hole for him and buried him there, placing a ring of stones around him to make a makeshift grave. They had hardly known him, they would never know anything about him again; and he had died, in Link's hands, through innocence and starvation. The great power of merely one of the members of the Angels Four was close by, killing this whole forest, and all the animals, off and for good, purely for the fact that it could. It was not fair and not right.  
  
And had to be stopped.  
  
CHAPTER 6: FAMINE  
  
They would have visited Pengal of the Strange to confer with him, but they knew that would simply waste time. The forest and all the animals were rapidly being starved. Even speaking to the leader would shave valuable minutes off their time. They might be in as poor a state as the Strange they found walking around. They might even be all dead. It was time to confront the first of the Angels Four.  
  
They didn't need to travel far in the direction the Strange had given him to find the Nutrition Caves he was on about. They were more confused, as such, about why it was called the Nutrition Caves.  
  
It was a giant hole going vertically downwards, roots hanging over the rim of it and spiraling into it. The roots were all dead and pitifully thin. The small waterfall that resided down one side of it had dried up, the mud over it cracking up into dry plates of soil. Flies were buzzing all around it.  
  
'The worst place for Famine to stay in.....' Link stated.  
  
'.....and he picks it.' Mentia finished.  
  
They patrolled the entire perimeter of the place, but couldn't find anything to climb down. All they found were steep slopes of mud that went downwards into the dark hole.   
  
They stared at this for a while, then Link interrupted the silence. 'Well, who's going to go first?'  
  
'Not me.' Mentia replied, snobbishly. 'It will get my cape seriously grubbed up.'  
  
'I'll go first.' NigSek said. 'If anything's at the bottom, I'll crush it with my weight.'  
  
'Okay, NigSek.' Link stood away from the edge, and NigSek walked to the edge. He pulled his head in slightly into his shell, so only the hair and demonic spikes stuck out.  
  
Then he dived. He slid rapidly downwards and disappeared into the darkness, the slipping noise of his body fading away. There were small globules of mud that rolled down with him.  
  
After a few minutes, they heard his voice echo up. 'It's safe. There's nothing down here. Come on!'  
  
Link dived down on his back next. The air rushed past him as he rolled down with yet more mud. He saw the cloudy sky disappear as he fell through the darkness. Below, a tiny spot of faint light grew in size, as he still rolled over and over. He passed into the hole, and fell through the air. He was yelling as he fell to the ground, and squished into it like a wet cushion.  
  
He stood up, and called up. 'Come on down, Mentia!' He yelled.  
  
After a second, he heard her screaming. A tiny trickle of dirt fell from the hole, a bit of it going into his eye. He rubbed it out to look up again- and saw Mentia fall onto him, squashing him. He forgot to get out of the way!  
  
'Ouch.' He moaned.  
  
'You should have gotten out of the way, then.' Mentia said as a reply to that.  
  
She got off him, and he stood up, covered in a thin covering of mucus. He rubbed as much of it off him as he could, then took a look around.  
  
The cavern was full of dead roots hanging from the ceiling. It was very dark, and mist hung from the ground and shrouded their feet. The walls and floor were covered in translucent mucus. Every minute sound they made echoed around the Caves. Other sounds, which stirred the party, echoed with those sounds as well.  
  
Up ahead was a chilly light, illuminating the fog all around them. Their skin was getting frosted, and their breath freezing before them. 'Let's keep moving, keep us warm.' Link told the others in the group. They nodded agreement and walked onwards.  
  
The ground was almost frictionless and they found it hard to keep themselves steady. They kept walking though, to try and find Famine in this cavern.  
  
They came to a large cavern- and stopped. The passage they were coming out of ended in a complete drop, many miles downwards and even darker than the cavern itself. A single passageway headed off into the distance. The noises they heard were coming from that passage.   
  
They knew somehow that the passageway they could see was the way forward, but it was a problem of getting there that was holding them back. The three people gazed around to try and see if there was anything here that would help. NigSek spotted something up on the ceiling, hanging on ropes.  
  
'Siriee.' Link kindly asked the Faerie. 'Could you check to see if there is anything we can do with that thing up there?' He pointed to the tied-up wooden object on the ceiling.  
  
Siriee sighed as he zipped up there and darted about it. Then he came back. 'Just a plank on strings.' He told him. 'Nothing special. Let's go.'  
  
But Link was dubious. 'NigSek, can you shake it loose with your jumping?'  
  
NigSek looked around the cavern, noticing the stalactites hanging from the ceiling. 'Not unless we want to risk being impaled.' He stated. He had a good point, as Link examined the sharp rocks hanging there. He doubted that even NigSek's shell could save him from that, let alone his Hylian shield.  
  
'Any idea Mentia?' He asked her. She then pulled out her whip and tried to snap the ropes holding it up. Her whip couldn't reach, though. She couldn't do anything either. Link held his chin in his hand, his other hand on his hip.  
  
He looked around again to check, and noticed something else; apart from the other ropes holding the plank in place, four others were leading off it, going to four corners of the cavern. They were all taut.   
  
'Perhaps if we could loosen those ropes.' Link started. 'Then we might have our own bridge to bridge the gap.'   
  
'But how do we get up there to loosen them?' NigSek asked.  
  
'I thought I could see an off passage back there.' Mentia chirped. 'We could get into any rooms above them to lower it down.'   
  
Both Link and NigSek saw the logic in that and went scouting for the passage way. Back into the claustrophobic cave they went, and soon enough had found it shrouded by more mist, for it went downwards through the floor.  
  
'But we want to go up!' NigSek exclaimed as they went into it.   
  
The path they went down passed completely below the mist layer and plunged into more coldness. Link and Mentia began to shiver, but NigSek was unaffected.  
  
'Aren't you freezing?' Mentia chattered, directing it to NigSek.  
  
'Remember, I have fire in my belly. I'm as warm as toast.' He said gleefully. This didn't seem to cheer Link up very much.  
  
Eventually they came to a long, deep room with a low roof, which seemed to be positioned below where they were standing a minute ago. NigSek had to crouch to even fit into this room. The room was covered in ice, with archer statues, probably of honorable Strange heroes, aligned along one side. On the other side was a hole in the wall.  
  
Link, Mentia and NigSek carefully walked across the ice to the wall with the hole in it. They peeked out, to find that they were looking out over the chasm they had seen earlier. Sure enough, they looked up- and saw the rope plank, high above them. Directly opposite them, on the other wall, was a switch, delicately carved into the shape of an eye.  
  
'I wonder what that switch does?' Link asked rhetorically.  
  
Suddenly, NigSek felt something rebound off his shell. He turned to find something laying on the ground, and picked it up. It was a chipped ice sword.  
  
'Something's in this room with us.' He said to the others.  
  
Link and Mentia turned around, and saw nothing. They looked at NigSek, who showed them the arrow. Now all eyes were staring at the statues opposite them.  
  
One of them smashed. A zombie archer leapt out and cocked his bow, readying an arrow. Then another statue smashed, the fragments of the ice littering the floor, but undetectable through the mist. This one also notched an arrow in his bow and cocked it, aiming it at Mentia.   
  
Mentia leapt to the side and rolled as the archer let go of his arrow and hit NigSek's armor. She cracked the whip at the archer, who winced. Link held his shield up as the other arrow flew at him, and it ricocheted off and tinkled onto the floor. Then Link lunged forward with his sword, stabbing the monster, who stumbled back for a bit. Link ran up to him, but the archer righted himself and swung the end of his bow into Link's face, cracking his nose. It was his turn to stumble back.  
  
Another arrow shot at NigSek, who was still watching the two fight, helpless from the low ceiling. Yet again it bounced off his covered belly. NigSek stared at the two archers, fighting Mentia and Link. They hadn't shot that- they were occupied.  
  
He glanced up- and saw a glimpse of the statue directly in front of him cock his arm. It was him that shot those other arrows before! The statue was still standing under the icy arch, motionless except for the mechanical movement of his hand.   
  
Meanwhile, Link got back up again, shielding himself from the archer as he swung his bow again. There was a trickle of blood coming from his right nostril. He sniffed, then got up again, swinging his sword artfully in his left hand. He took another stab, and ripped the creatures rotting skin down the center of his body. The creature staggered on the spot, and fell forward, lifeless.  
  
Mentia had disposed of the other zombie in the meanwhile, and looked slowly around the room, her eyes twitching and surveying for anything moving. Then she stood upright and walked to Link.  
  
'Oh. You're bleeding.' She soothingly whispered.  
  
Link wiped his nose on his white sleeve and sniffed again. 'Oh, it's nothing.' He replied.  
  
'There's another one in here, you two.' NigSek warned them.  
  
'Where? I can't see anything.' Link glanced around again.  
  
'Look at the statue.' He watched as it drew yet another ice arrow and let it go, and hit NigSek on his belly. The monster was getting pretty annoyed by it.  
  
Then it all snapped into place. 'NigSek, take a few steps to the side.'  
  
He shuffled to the side, opening up the hole in the wall. Then the statue stopped.  
  
'I'll try it.' Link walked over to the statue and crouched below the arrow so he wasn't staring right into it. The statue still didn't move.  
  
Link took a gulp. 'NigSek, walk back again, so you cannot be hurt by the arrows, like last time. I want to watch it.'  
  
He shuffled over to his original place again, his bulk seemed swollen in comparison to the rest of the cave. The archer, like before, pulled and fired its arrows again, all rebounding off NigSek's shell. But Link was watching the statue carefully, and realized two things. Firstly, the arrows appeared in puffs of mist, rather than being pulled out of a quiver on his back. This consolidated the fact that they were, indeed, ice arrows. Secondly, and more importantly, it seemed that he pulled his arrow back, then waited for three seconds before releasing it again. It would wait twenty-five seconds before pulling an arrow again and repeating the cycle.  
  
On Link's command NigSek edged away from the hole, and Link stood there crouched. He then took a deep breath and stood up, watching the archer with unblinking eyes.  
  
It pulled the arrow back.  
  
'One.....two.....THREE!' He rolled to the side just in time to miss the arrow whizzing by his earlobe. It embedded itself into the switch on the far wall and melted away. The switch glowed, then the far away echo of whirring cogs could be heard. A whizzing sound was heard, then a clatter.  
  
'The bridge!' They all cried.  
  
They ran up the spiraled passageway to find that the switch had, indeed, lowered the bridge. It had spread across the chasm and opened the way up to the cave beyond. Link walked across it first, then Mentia. It wobbled as they walked over, but they reached the end.  
  
NigSek took a step- and it cracked. He paused, watching the plank splinter around his saurian, three- toed foot. He looked at Link and Mentia over on the other side. 'I... I don't think I can make it.' He stuttered.   
  
'Sure you can.' Link called. 'Just run across.'  
  
'Are you crazy? He'll fall in.'  
  
A pair of eyes glinted behind NigSek. Link saw them edge closer to him.  
  
'Actually, NigSek.' Mentia started. 'You might want to come across.' She saw them as well.  
  
Another two pairs of eyes lighted behind him. NigSek just looked at the plank before him.  
  
'Are you sure about this?' He called.  
  
'Yes! Just leap across if it snaps!'  
  
'That's a lot of help.' He complained. Another five pairs of eyes appeared. They were creeping to him, a loud chattering noise and loud clicking emanated from them.  
  
'Come on! Hurry!'  
  
'Why? What's the rush?' NigSek looked over to where Mentia had been staring for the last minute. Something black and shiny hissed at him, mandibles snapping shut.  
  
'Aaaarrgh!!!' NigSek bounded across the plank. His feet hardly touched the wood as he landed on the other side. The cavern shook with his weight.  
  
'What on earth was that?' Mentia asked the now bemused creature.  
  
'Don't you mean, them?' Link watched with horror as many giant black things crawled out on multiple legs, scuttling around the edge of the cavern. One nudged at the plank, which flipped over and clattered down below, fading into echoes, then nothingness.   
  
The things flourished onto the ledge, then attached themselves to the walls near the ledge and crawled around the cavern, towards them. They flooded over the brink of the ledge and downwards, hoping to get across to them.  
  
They edged backwards as one of them detached from the ceiling and landed in front of them, equaling NigSek in height and easily dwarfing Link and Mentia. Its mandibles opened and it made a hissing noise at them all.   
  
They immediately ran down the passageway, being chased by more of the things that were chasing them. A good measure of the trouble your in, Link managed to sum up as he was running, was when anything you confronted in your journeys was frightening enough to scare even another monster. Their measurement for this situation was NigSek, who was also running with them down the caverns. And this was a monster that had been devouring men, women and children alike for years.  
  
But then maybe, after coming across nothing but people for six hundred years, he would have been tamed down. Not enough to encourage brave men who fancied to slay him- he certainly had the ability to still do that, much to Link's dismay. But it was probably new and unusual things that frightened him more. A good example was of the grass when he first came off the mountain.  
  
An inscectoid screaming broke Link out of deep thought and righted his mind on what he was doing, which was running. The caverns twisted and turned as they ran through them, the strange noises still increasing in volume.  
  
After a bit of running though, the creatures gave up the chase and slowed down. They slowed down into a walk, until the cavern widened and fell out into another large cavern, much larger than the previous one.  
  
Link gasped, Mentia almost screamed, and NigSek's eyes bulged.  
  
The whole floor of the cavern was covered with maggots. Huge maggots, each stuck to the floor and thrashing about in the same spot, never stopping. Food was being passed around the maggots, and spiders were lowering themselves from the ceiling, picking up a maggot and placing him somewhere else. Other passageways leaded off to other places  
  
The room was packed. There was hardly any movement for the three to move into the room. The maggots and the spiders, however, ignored them. They carried on with their actions of passing, wriggling, carrying and such.  
  
The maggots were disgusting to touched. They bulged and rubbed against his legs, their translucent skin showing their internal organs mashing about their foul little bodies. The spiders seemed different, though. They only seemed to have six legs, the two front ones joining together, then splitting off into other claws at the end. He saw this as one reached down to pick a maggot up.  
  
He saw another one carefully place a maggot in between a few other maggots. Why would it bother doing that? It seemed to be trying to organizing them, but it didn't seem any more organized than before he put the maggot there. No need to sort a mess into another mess.  
  
But then Link noticed something about the maggots. They weren't thrashing about exceedingly, but touching each other's mouths. The ones which had food in their mouth was being passed onto another maggot, and he would lean over and give it to the next maggot. They were passing the food along each other! He noticed all the maggots doing this now, and told the others, who agreed. Siriee pointed out that the general movement of food was going to one of the off passages, and only that one.  
  
But why? These surely weren't in pact with the Strange- unless they really were that strange, which he doubted. The caves weren't acessible by them, and were being lived in by one of the dark angels, and-  
  
The dark angel. Famine. He would destroy their precious food supplies by feasting on it himself. The maggots were carrying it to him to be eaten. They were, in turn, leading them to Famine!  
  
'Follow the food.' He whispered to NigSek and Mentia. They followed him.  
  
They treaded very carefully through the field of maggots. If too many of them were squashed underfoot, the food supply would be cut off- and Famine would know they were here. They also avoided the spiders falling down to organize maggots, lest they trigger the alarm off too. This was very difficult for NigSek because of his mass.  
  
But after excruciating patience and careful walking, they made it to the passage. The maggots were practically single file down here, so they could walk down with them underfoot, passing food undeterred.  
  
They turned the corner, and saw him.  
  
The First of the Angels Four, Famine.  
  
He was in the very center of the cavern, grabbing great chubby handfuls of food and cramming them into his mouth. He was facing away from them, so could only see a vomit green- skinned creature, as bloated and festered as the maggot themselves. They walked to him, drawing weapons.  
  
Famine turned as he heard the footsteps. His face was very ugly- he had two tiny eyes, pushed to the left of his head by a huge bulging eye in the center of his head. He had a wide mouth, smothered in mush and scraps of food. Skin hung around his flabby body like rolls of lard, which they probably were. Vein marks rimmed his chubby muscular arms, and his bulky tail curled around him. He had no legs at all, and resembled a giant slug. On his chest was painted a small symbol of a human skull with the crack marks going diagonally across the face, and small splinters chipped from it. This, then, was the symbol of the Angels Four.  
  
He belched, which echoed around his cave. 'So you arrived. I'll finish you off so I can starve the world.'  
  
'Try me.' Link muttered.  
  
He flicked his wrist, and in his hand appeared a monstrous Hammer, which he held in two hands. A skull was wedged into the end opposite the flat end, which looked starved of marrowbone.  
  
'We are immortal. You cannot kill us.' He scoffed, wriggling to them.  
  
'We can stop you, and the others!' Mentia yelled at him.   
  
He guffawed when he heard this, holding his rumbling flabby belly. He held the mighty hammer in one hand and smashed the ground in front of him. Tremors of earth rippled out from him, throwing dust and shards of ice into the air.  
  
The ground shook. Crack marks appeared around all four of the people there, and they widened. The whole cavern rumbled and shook with the force. A deep red glow emanated from the cracks in the floor. Lava spurt out from them, sprinkling around the cavern and melting the ice slowly.  
  
Link rushed for Famine, but stopped as a huge boulder shot from the ground on a fountain of steam. It blistered his arm as he shielded himself, and his shield was heated by the temperature. Link took a few steps back to watch as the boulder flew over him and landed between the other two. Famine watched them all and laughed.  
  
Steam sprayed from numerous holes around them where the ice and the lava met and melted rapidly. Mentia and NigSek also ran for the bloated angel, leaping and dodging lava spurts and steam. They were now closer to Famine, who noticed them edge closer to him.  
  
NigSek leapt, roaring, with all four arms outstretched. Famine held the handle of the hammer up to him to block. His claws scraped harmlessly over the metal handle, a few even denting. He landed with a smash, making Famine's skin ripple, before being bolted in the stomach area with his hammer. He fell backwards and landed on his back, his feet sticking upwards. He squirmed around before righting himself up and watching Famine. Even the might of a monster seemed no match for the power of an apocalyptic angel.  
  
Link gritted his teeth from the sore pain from his arm and ran again for him. He was seemingly watching NigSek and had his back turned to him. Mentia cracked her whip at him but the coarse knotted end of it rebounded off his flabby skin. His giant eye swiveled to her and watched her try again in vein. He swung for her with his hammer, and she jumped backwards to avoid it.  
  
Link leapt, lunged his sword forward- and straight through the swollen skin, stretching it. It flung back at him as the skin recoiled and sprung back into shape. Famine turned his face to him as Link leapt back, smiling.  
  
And getting knocked in the face by NigSek's tail, swinging at him. He fell forward and flopped onto the floor, his flesh rippling. NigSek seemed proud as he turned to watch him reel over, and momentarily smiled.  
  
Link tried again for Famine's head. His sword hacked into the back of his head, sprinkling a few drops of blood around the floor. His head glowed with every hit.  
  
Famine sprung back up onto his bulging tail and slithered around to NigSek. NigSek swung his tail into his face again, but he was prepared this time. In his free hand he snagged the creature's tail, stopping him in mid- twist. Effortlessly he twisted, pulling NigSek's tail and him with it, and let him go towards the nearest steam spurt. NigSek flew out of Famine's hand and rolled over to the jet residing from the yawning gap in the ground, but he rolled over it unharmed.   
  
Mentia cracked her whip at Famine's chest. He also reached out to grab it, but it sliced his hand instead across the palm. A greasy mixture of blood and gruel splattered over his rounded chest. He looked at Mentia, sneering.  
  
He paused just to flick Link with his tail as he tried to sneak up behind him, then slithered up to Mentia. She lassooed her whip, readying another strike. Link landed on a sharp stone, shredding the skin on his left arm. He clenched it in agony, and watched Mentia.  
  
As Famine slithered to her, he struck the ground with his hammer, cracking the ground ahead of him and reaching for her. The floor beneath her feet buckled, and she lifted her feet away whilst turning. The boot caught on a rock, and she twisted her foot whilst lifting it. She fell over herself, on a sticking out shard of stone and gouging her stomach. She screamed in pain.  
  
'Mentia!' Link cried.  
  
She turned over weakly to watch the bloated angel slither closer to her, chuckling wickedly. Her eyes widened when she saw him stop, and lifting his hammer high above his head, preparing to crush her fragile body underneath his great weapon.  
  
'Don't hurt her!' NigSek roared.  
  
He grabbed for his hammer, yanking it out of his greasy hands. Famine levered his hands cruelly for Mentia before noticing he wasn't holding his hammer. He looked around and saw NigSek holding the hammer. His eye narrowed.  
  
Then NigSek screamed and released the hammer, which re-materialized in Famine's hands. The handle of the hammer had become white hot, and singed his hands. As NigSek blew on his hands, he looked at Famine.  
  
Famine had been readying a strike to his head, and now swung his hammer around. NigSek's head crunched as the hammer hit it full- impact, and he spun around and fell on the floor.  
  
'No!!!' Mentia's turn to shout out came.  
  
Link, now on his feet, limped over to Famine. He was watching NigSek lying on the floor, not moving. Now was his chance.   
  
Link, through all his hatred for the foul being, hurting him, crippling her, and maybe even killing him, clenched his fist in anger. He swung his sword and unleashed it at the back of his face.  
  
A flash of blue and a squelching, shattering noise, and Famine's giant eye had disappeared. He blurted backwards in absolute agony, more greasy slush pouring out of him. The pieces of his eye fell about the place, vanishing under the misty, steamy cloud layering the floor. He wavered about, still belching, blurting and gurgling at the same time. He continued like this for a while, but didn't fall down. After watching this for almost a minute, he held his sword out again, muttering his magical words. His sword arm stiffened.  
  
Famine managed to turn to Link. He vomited more grease out of his wide toad- like mouth. 'I... don't believe it.....' He belched again. 'I... I'm dying.... I feel my life, ebbing away from me.'  
  
Link's sword glowed blue. The cavern darkened.  
  
But Famine warned him. 'The land of ISZ.. ISZAMI... will be rid of starvation. The people.... Will... feast again....' He had trouble holding his head up, and wavered even more. Mentia slowly got up and limped slowly and painfully to him. NigSek still lied on the floor.  
  
'But... the whole land... will be shredded by.. by war...... and rotted by disease..... and... will... eventually.........' He threw up more grease, and his whole front was glistening now.  
  
Link's sword was red. Light shone from it. He spun.  
  
The red power thundered all around him, and Famine's head was taken messily off the shoulders, his mouth open as it burnt up in the red flames. Link stopped spinning, and looked around.  
  
Famine's greasy, bloody body still sent out a mysterious piercing scream, deep from within his foul body. He flopped to the floor, his whole body spreading out before the two. It brightened, and the whole cavern shone with light. Rumblings were happening all around them, but they couldn't see anything because of the brightness.  
  
As it faded away and the rumblings stopped, the body had disappeared. All that was left was a shining hammer in the room, and a rich blue glow from the floor.. Link noticed his body had been healed, and he felt slightly stronger now. Mentia also straightened, and they could see tiny saplings grow from the diminishing mist.  
  
But NigSek, however, still stayed motionless. Mentia walked closer to the great beast, his head lying on the ground. Link walked closer too. They feared the worst for him.  
  
Mentia began to cry. 'I didn't trust him.' She said quietly. 'Yet he saved my life..' She turned to Link. 'And lost his in the meanwhile.' A tiny trickle fell from her large red eye, flowing down her smooth soft check, peaking at the bottom of her pointed chin.   
  
Link, not normally very sympathetic, began to feel very emotional. Here lied a noble, honest creature. He had admitted from the beginning of having traces of badness in his soul, but he simply degraded himself too much. He was, in truth, a caring, loving creature, punishingly trapped in the body of a monster, and forced to do a job not only he was ashamed of, but didn't even deserve- but in his loyalty, he kept to it for six hundred years, in the hope of keeping the whole land in balance. He deserved more for a reward, and got nothing, other than death from an angel similar to the one that trapped him to his job. But to Link, he shall have died in honor.  
  
The body stirred, and moaned. Mentia's eyes widened. 'He's alive?' She whispered.  
  
NigSek turned and faced the two. His large face was dazed. 'My head.' He moaned.  
  
'You're alive!' She screamed in utter delight. She ran up to NigSek and hugged his giant face. She then repeatedly kissed his snout.  
  
NigSek looked shocked. 'What's come over her? She wouldn't come near me normally!'  
  
'Oh, you're alive!' Mentia smiled, hugging him more.  
  
NigSek clambered to his feet and Mentia moved backwards. His head split in two again. 'Why did it have to be ME that gets it?' Sekapook complained.  
  
'It's your fault!' Nigrowb told him. 'You're were closer to the collision!'  
  
'Hey! I didn't have much of a choice!' Sekapook turned his face to look at Nigrowb squarely in the eye.  
  
'So stop complaining all of the time!' One hand on Nigrowb's side slapped. Sekapook's face. They then squarreled for a while, before noticing Link and Mentia were watching them.  
  
Then they broke out in laughter, much to NigSek's confusion.  
  
CHAPTER 7: WAR  
  
Link picked up the hammer on the floor and examined it. It was finely polished, very angular and a lot smaller than Famine's hammer, although it required Link to hold it in both hands. He shoved it into his rucksack, before joining the others who were watching the strange glowing blue slab in front of them.  
  
It was of a friendly glowing, quite unlike any of the hues emanated from the apocalyptic angel which had been slain. Already his aura was being flourished out of the cavern they were in, and was now rich in foliage.  
  
Link suddenly remembered what the glowing slab was for. 'It's a teleporter.' He explained to the perplexed woman and monster. To show his point, he marched to it, and stepped in. The glowing beams of blue lengthened and reached the ceiling. Link felt his body lift upwards, then shoot through the ceiling.   
  
In a flash, he found himself standing on the outskirts of the hole leading to the Nutrition Caves. He looked around the once starved vegetation, and saw it flourish with life again. Birds nestled in small twiggy nests resting on elegantly curved branches, lifting upwards from plants and vines that hung into the deep caves. But the caves weren't intimidating anymore, for from below it came a warm, moist waft of air, lifting Link's hair up at the tips. The waterfall was becoming wetter again, presently trickling down into the caves. Over time, the water would avert back to it and flow down in a beautiful arch. Surely this was the image that sprang to mind in conjunction to its name, for this was what nutrition bought.  
  
Mentia floated down to his left, then NigSek to his right. They both overlooked the beautiful sights with pride. They had broken the curse of starvation, together.  
  
'Hey!' Siriee spoke. 'The Strange of the treetops must have revived again from their starving state. Should we visit them?'   
  
Link wondered who said that. Siriee was so quiet, he had forgotten completely about him. He was talking less and less every day, only saying the odd thing. Link was now worried about him.  
  
'Siriee. Are you okay?' Link asked the Faerie.  
  
Mentia noticed he hadn't spoken much as well. 'Yes. You don't say much, now. What's wrong?'  
  
'There's nothing wrong with me!' Siriee snapped. 'Let's go, already!' He flew off to the Krib Treetops. Link, Mentia, Nigrowb and Sekapook glanced at each other, then walked to the direction Siriee flew off to.  
  
Within a while, they reached the Krib Treetops. The grass was already growing greener, more rapidly so, and the leaves had become larger and fresher. Tiny drops of water sprinkled down onto Link's face as he looked up to the huge trees. Small bird twittered in the lowest branches, filling the place with life. The place was littered with small green bushes and tree saps growing from the sunbeams ebbing in from above. The whole place was altogether a restored place.  
  
As they ventured between the huge trunks, a Strange popped out to salute them. He was more fleshed than the one they had seen before, showing with great pleasure the banishment of Famine's spell.  
  
'Was it you who found one of us, staggering around at the bottom here earlier?' He asked the closest of the party, which was Mentia.  
  
'Yes. We gave him as proper a burial as we could, below your very homes.' She looked around to find the grave, but couldn't see it.   
  
'Then, were you the lot that went and lifted the curse from our race?' He further probed, still with the Strange's accent and their unusual use of words. They almost had their own language, Link imagined.  
  
'Yes. We went to your Nutrition Caves and had slain the apocalyptic angel residing there.' She stood up straight, almost twice the height of the little man.  
  
He smiled with joy. 'Then do you want to come to the Krib Treetops? Our leader, Pengal, would like to see you three.' He walked beyond the treetrunks, calling for them. They all followed.  
  
Link was astounded by the rapid healing of this forest. They had only visited a few hours ago! In fact, it had only just become nightfall, the moon glowing brightly, yet spreading a dim light through the trees. Link looked above and saw lights in the trees.  
  
If the hunger curse had gone this quickly, then it must have come in a horrifying manner over the whole area. He thought of all the creatures here, who had only just realized that their food was disappearing and they were thinning out, some collapsing and starving on the spot they landed, too weak to even move or call out to anything. Such was the immense power of a creature with the essence of an immortal being, who inflicted their force so quickly that nobody would have even wondered what would happer.  
  
Now, however, they had stopped one of the angels (who's being greatly defies the holy term) and released the land of Famine. But it was still in threat from War and Pestilence, and it could still be outright annihilated. Their minor victory now seemed paltry in comparison, for they still had great deeds to accomplish.  
  
Walking through the cozy darkness of the trees lead them to a large thatched basket. It was tied to with a rope and pulley system, and was guarded by a Strange illuminated by the torch held in his hand. They ushered Link and Mentia into the basket.  
  
NigSek came to them from behind a treetrunk- and was almost immediately met by two Strange, trying to prod it with spear and flaming torch.  
  
'Don't touch him!' Link shouted at the Strange. 'He's friendly, and helped us.'  
  
'Really?' One of them asked. Link nodded. The two apologized to the creature and walked away from it, ignoring him. NigSek stood there and watched as the Strange holding the torch waved it into the sky. Far above them a tiny orange speck waved back at him.  
  
Link and Mentia jolted as the basket suddenly heaved into the air, taking them upwards. NigSek and the Strange watched the basket being elevated towards the treetops.  
  
Mentia stared out onto the landscape below, and Link did too. The sky was, yet again, beautifully romantic. Stars winked at them from high above, and the moon glowed sleepily in the sky as well. The canopies that they were passing below were lush and frilly.  
  
'Link.....' She paused.  
  
'What is it, Mentia?'  
  
'It's a..... beautiful night, tonight.' She said awkwardly.  
  
'Mmm.' Link replied. A well defined statement, that. After watching another canopy pass below them, Mentia nudged closer to Link, her shoulder resting against Link's masculine chest. Without thinking, Link went to put his arm around her slim waist, then stopped. He wasn't the type that made the first move with this sort of thing, and didn't want to lose any trust from her by seeming to immediately go for the first opening there was. His hand slowly went back down again, and Mentia sighed. Besides, Link thought, she might just be cold from the frosty night air. She wasn't properly garbed for the occasion, too, with her cape being the only thing she had to cover her beautiful white skin, her supple body-  
  
Link shook his head, and glanced up to the platform that was now visible. They had almost reached the Krib Treetops, and to a dizzying height, overlooking all the nearby trees.  
  
A Strange opened the basket from behind them, welcoming them out. 'The leader wants to see you now.' He said almost kindly.  
  
'Wait a while. We have to wait for our friend to be pulled up.'  
  
'Really? Okay, then.' He didn't seem to be bothered by it.  
  
'We have to warn you, though. He's a monster.'  
  
'Oh. Al- WHAT?' He did a double take as he said that.  
  
'I'd say he was about.... Three, four tons...' Link jokingly estimated.  
  
The Strange's mouth dropped.  
  
Mentia smiled. 'And if he's dropped, he gets in a bad temper, too.'  
  
He ran to two people over by a pulley system nearby. 'Okay, you two!' He shouted. 'Get ready, there's a bleedin' monster down there that wants lifting up. If we drop him, he gets stressed!'  
  
'And he could burn this whole forest down if he gets annoyed.'  
  
They all ran around panicking as they got the signal from below to lift the pulley. They seem to have the rope attached to two baskets, because the first basket didn't drop down and they were lifting NigSek up. The Strange strained to turn the handle.  
  
'Cor, he weighs a ton!' One of them said through gritted teeth. The others nodded agreement.  
  
Eventually they managed to raise the hefty creature up onto the platform. He stepped out of the basket and walked to Link. 'What did you say to them?' He whispered. 'They seemed to lifted me up very quickly, despite my size.'  
  
'Oh... nothing.' Mentia giggled sweetly, and NigSek shrugged. One Strange lead them across the strong rope bridge, passing by the other two very tired Strange who watched as the creature stomped besides them. The platform even shook with every step.  
  
As an apology, Link turned back to them. 'Don't worry about him, really. He wouldn't hurt a fly.' The two Strange were enraged as they heard this, kicking up a temper.  
  
Link walked across the rope bridge to the other three. The whole of the Treetops was a network of bridges, huts and platforms, with flickering flames individually dotted around to cast a yellow ambiance onto the branches and leaves all around them. The leaves were huge, and easily outsized him as he walked past admiring one. The air was actually quite warm up here, which was a relief. He looked down, but could only see layers of leaves and branches below him. They had passed through a lot of canopies to get up here.  
  
The sound of crackling passed by him as he walked around a lit torch, tiny bits of red ash peppering down below and waving out of sight. The village itself was also alive with cheering and music.   
  
They reached a hut and were politely ushered into it. In there was another small Strange sitting on a throne made of twigs and leaves. The horns cresting his bald head were larger than the others, and wore a primitive metal plate on his chest, scratched and dented.  
  
He nodded his head at the Strange who walked in first. 'Alright?' He replied back to him.  
  
Link and Mentia walked into the hut, and NigSek carefully poked his head through the entrance. 'Gov'ner, these are the group that lifted the curse on our village.'  
  
Gov'ner? Was that their language for 'king'? It seemed like it. In which case, this was their leader, Pengal, the one they had come to meet.  
  
Pengal stood out of his large chair and shook Link firmly by the hand. His grip was coarse and rough, and almost unwittingly pulled his hand out of his socket. They were certainly stronger than they looked!  
  
'Hello, there, lads.' He started. 'And lasses.' As he spotted Mentia, arms folded. 'I'm Pengal, of the Krib Treetop clan. They call us the 'Strange', I believe....'  
  
'Yes, that is right.' NigSek quoted from behind them all.  
  
Pengal only just noticed the monster's head poking through the hut entrance. He jumped. 'What's that?' He cried.  
  
''That'' Mentia said confidently. 'Is our friend, NigSek.' NigSek smiled at Pengal, horrified by the huge, wide face completely blocking the entrance. 'I am Mentia, and this is Link and Siriee' She gestured to Link, who nodded, and Siriee, who bobbed in mid- air.  
  
'Wait!' NigSek split his head in two again. The two pieces of his head smiled to Pengal, who looked even more shocked.  
  
'Oh, I almost forgot. These are the two parts of NigSek, Nigrowb and Sekapook.'  
  
'Well, you seem an inspired bunch.' Said Pengal. He stood on his throne, trying to tower over the people in the room and failing. 'I would like to say 'thanks' on behalf of everyone, for lifting the spell from our part of ISZAMI. We didn't have a clue as to what had happened, when we started to go very hungry. Our Nutrition Caves were overrun by hideous monsters, and they ended up rotting away. With no other food to live on, we were doomed to die by tomorrow at the best.'  
  
'Famine was living in your caves, eating all of the food in there. We have killed him and rid ISZAMI of his power.'  
  
'But three others, like him but with different powers, are hidden around the lands. We've found an estimated hideout for War. But the others we are unsure of.'  
  
'I directed them to you to see if you could help us.' NigSek finished.   
  
He scratched his head, and his ear lobes twitched. He pondered for a while, then paced the length of the hut.   
  
'Okay.' He said after a silent moment. 'You get some rest, then we can leave in the morning. I will help you fight...... who was it again?'  
  
'War.' Link answered.  
  
'Why is he called that? And why was the one in our caves called Famine?'  
  
Link and Mentia exchanged glances, confused by his remark.  
  
Pengal noticed why they were looking at each other like so. 'I mean, I just thought they had a meaning behind their names. Why they were called things like 'War' and 'Famine', instead of others like, y'know, 'Hasger' or 'Frusch'......'  
  
The told him about the story about the Angels Four.  
  
'This is terrible.' He stated. 'They must be stopped. But we must get rest, for tomorrow will be a busy day.'  
  
'But we must leave now.' Mentia reasoned with him. 'They could be killing off other tribes, like yours.'  
  
But he had an explanation for this. 'From what I heard within your stories, you think War is planning to overthrow the City in the center of ISZAMI when the shield is gone. They aren't actually doing anything while they wait for that moment in the desert, are they?'  
  
Link saw the logic in this. They were themselves trapped in the desert, and they didn't know yet where to find the other two angels. Therefore, they couldn't do anything until the shield came down, which is doubtful to happen for a few more days yet. They had as much time as needed to wait for the right moment to strike.  
  
'Very well. We shall take your compliance, then leave at dawn.' Link stretched his arms and yawned. He had a tough day, and more of it to come.  
  
Pengal snapped his fingers, whereupon NigSek was nudged out of the entrance hole, letting in three Strange. 'Semit? Drow? Suruas? Take our guests to spare huts for the night.' One walked slowly to NigSek, who stared down at him with orange- red eyes. 'I shall sleep outside, if need be' He nobly told Pengal.  
  
'If you don't mind... we didn't account for a... a....'  
  
'Monster.' He finished for him, sighing. He waited outside for Link and Mentia to come out. A Strange led Link to a hut nearby. Mentia walked past as she was lead by one further away.  
  
''Night.' The Strange murmured, and pulled a curtain across the doorway. He cleared his throat as he stood outside his hut.  
  
Link looked dreary- eyed around his small compartment. It was dark and unlighted, and all there was was a comfortable straw bed matting along one side of the room. Link laid his shield onto the floor near his bed, followed by his sword and his rucksack.  
  
As the rucksack dropped noisily onto the floor, the room brightened slightly as something flew out. 'Hey, that hurt!' Siriee cried.  
  
'Oh, sorry Siriee.' Link half- heartedly apologized to him. He flew out through the curtain, to the Strange's surprise. 'What the-?' He slurred. Link managed half a smile, then declared he was too tired to do anything else.  
  
He slowly laid down on his bed and closed his eyes, breathing deeply. Get as much sleep as you can, Link, he thought to himself. Tomorrow promises a busy day.  
  
A blowing sound from high above them, like a war horn, startled Link awake. He jumped out of bed and stood up, his room filled with a golden glow of the morning sun. He stretched his arms, yawning loudly, then picked up his equipment and put it all back on. He eased the curtain back to look outside.  
  
All of the Strange, even the one who was supposedly guarding his den, was missing from the village. He looked up, however, to find one of them stood on a high branch blowing through a hollowed- out tree branch. As he stopped exhaling he stared downwards to the ground.  
  
'Link!' He turned to find Mentia, to the side of the hut. NigSek was behind her. 'Where have they all gone?'  
  
'I was about to ask you the same thing.' Link responded. He looked up to the one Strange sitting on the branch. He cupped one hand around his mouth. 'Hey!' He called out to him.  
  
The Strange was about to reply to them, when they heard someone call out to them from a nearby hut. 'Link! Mentia! NigRowb!'   
  
They all turned to find Pengal, walking out of a hut close by. He proceeded to them, and that was when Link saw something, slide through the trees.  
  
Link turned, and saw nothing. He faced Pengal who was coming closer.  
  
'Rise and shine, you three!' He called cheerfully and with vigor. 'Looks like you're ready. I'll escort you down to the bottom where my army is waiting.'  
  
'Army?' said NigRowb.... Sorry, NigSek. The Tribe leader muddled up his name by calling him that just now. He was probably thinking about it as he was speaking.  
  
'Yes. Is there a problem with that?' He asked the great beast. His face suddenly turned deeply serious.  
  
Then Link saw something again, fly through the woods. He just managed to recognize a thin, sinewy body. Link began to get suspicious.  
  
'Well, there must be something I should tell you, about the angels-'  
  
Suddenly, a huge reptilian head popped up, screaming a metallic hissing noise, right beside Pengal. It was followed by two long muscular arms of charred black color. The monster's yellow hair flung around its rough orange skin.  
  
As it peered at them inquisitively, Link and Mentia reached for their weapons, and NigSek raised the hackles on his hair up and beared his teeth. The creature released a metallic roar from his wide thin mouth, spraying spittle across the bridge and swaying it in the blast from his mouth.  
  
Pengal looked at the creature over his shoulder. 'It's okay. Calm down, calm down.' He walked over to the creature and patted it's flaring nostrils. 'There there, shnookums.' He whispered into a hole in the side of its head. The thing's eyes narrowed as Pengal stroked him repeatedly. Link, Mentia and NigSek calmed down slightly.  
  
He then addressed the three onlookers. 'Sorry- I forgot to tell you about her.' He gestured to the creature, clawing the bridge. 'Link, Mentia and NigRowb-'  
  
'That's NigSek.' He muttered under his breath.  
  
Pengal managed to pick this up with his split earlobes. 'Uh, NigSek.' He corrected himself. 'Mates, I'd like to introduce you to Nektaa- my dragon steed.' The creature yelped when they turned to her. She seemed proud of her title.  
  
Link was not only relaxed, but astounded. Dragons, despite the numerous tales about them, were actually quite rare- in fact, Link's grandfather had killed the last one in Hyrule, named Volvagia, who was planning to burn the whole of Hyrule to ashes. Link was excited when he heard the story first time, and constantly forced him to repeatedly tell him the tale again and again. Apart from the Faerie he had as a guide, and the horse which he would ride across open fields, this was the one other thing Link was truly amazed by. Now he had come across both a Faerie and a dragon. This dragon even looked like the last Hylian serpent, according to his grandfather's descriptions, apart from being a bright orange color rather like the sap from a tree. Like nectar, he noticed.  
  
The dragon obligingly let the small man scramble around her neck and sat behind her head, holding the two ram- like horns sprouting behind each eye. 'Come on, then. Get on here with me. She won't bite.'  
  
Link and Mentia climbed up and sat on the creatures scaly neck. The bony lumps lining its back were evenly spaced, and actually held him quite firmly in place.  
  
NigSek became coy. 'You too, NigSek.' Pengal included. 'She can easily carry you.'  
  
He climbed onto the dragon and sat behind Mentia. However he couldn't fit into a good seating position as did the others, and rested awkwardly on the lumps down Nektaa's spine. The dragon, despite its thinner mass than NigSek's, seemed unpeturbed by his weight.  
  
Pengal spurred his heels on the dragons neck, and it moved. Sliding and gliding through the air like a giant flying snake, they held on tightly to anything they could on Nektaa's body. NigSek almost fell off altogether, extending his claws into the dragon's skin. Nektaa screamed in pain and tried to buck him off her back.  
  
'Nektaa, calm down.' Pengal soothingly asked the dragon. She then continued weaving through the trees, each branch whooshing past Link as they flew by. The wind blew into his face caused by the velocity that they traveled at, and his hair breezed by his face. Mentia's cape and flowing hair arched beautifully from behind her, making her look angelic. She kept her concentration on clinging to the dragon as they came closer to the ground.  
  
Link looked down. As they passed through each canopy, they could hear the chanting of the Strange, far below. It grew louder as they went further downwards. As Nektaa passed through the lowest sheet of leaves, the whole forest floor was carpetted with Strange, all armed with wooden spears and shields. Each individual one looked up to the oncoming dragon, and cheered. 'Hooray, the Dragon Tamer!' They all chanted out.  
  
With a metallic hiss the dragon skimmed across the land and lowered her arms. The dragon clawed at the ground, which increasingly slowed them down, until she came to a complete stop, whereupon Pengal leaped off the mighty dragon and addressed the army. 'Great Army before me!' He hollowed out, in the Strange's different accent. 'Today, we shall help our friends free our whole land from a great evil. We can do our bit to stop these fiends from ruling our world!' They stared up to him in awe, as Nektaa curled up and nudged him with her giant scaly nose. Without turning Pengal rubbed her nose, and the dragon snorted.   
  
'This army.' He told them. 'Is on the other side of ISZAMI, in the desert. However, it is not lead by a mere warrior- this is the very epitomy of War itself. Like the angel who perished our revived Nutrition Caves, he will inflict great pain on our land if they are not stopped. Though their army may be great in number, and powered with the forces of evil, we are enlightened with the wisdom and strength of our beloved forest.' He looked around himself. 'Together, we can overcome this problem and conquer war itself!' The whole army cheered, waving and jumping and shouting for hope, which will eventually propel them to freedom.  
  
'Pengal.' Link warned him. 'There is something we should explain to you. About War.'  
  
'Very well, then.' He listened.  
  
Link and Mentia between them explained to Pengal about the angel's aura, and that nobody is to go near them. NigSek would bless him alone with the light shield, but he wouldn't have enough to go around for everyone. Pengal nodded, and among the cheering from the clan beyond them, had his spear quickly blessed by Nigrowb and Sekapook. As Pengal accepted his spear back, his armor shone with a flash of blue. 'Thank you for this. I shall tell them now.' He turned once again to the army.  
  
'I have one other thing to explain to you lot!' He called. 'War himself will be protected by a magic spell, that will prevent anyone from coming close to him. You must all hold off the rest of the army, but you must leave War himself to me and my friends.' Some of the Strange whined when they heard this- they wanted to kill the angel himself, no doubt.   
  
'I shall lead you into the army, and victory!' He raised his spear into the air, and so did all of the Strange, with a roar of applause from them, all standing below him. They were determined to win, and their encouragement helped greatly.  
  
But would it be enough?  
  
After three days of marching across the land of ISZAMI, through forests so as not to be spotted and to keep themselves homely and healthy, and allowing Link to admire even more of this strange land- frustratingly, avoiding the ISZAMI Dome altogether- they reached the desert. It was a very flat, plain, sandy white wasteland. Heat waves lingered from the parched hot ground. The air was stuffy and humid, with nothing at all to keep the land from seeming sparse, apart from a few low mountains in the distance.  
  
And an army. A huge army, with thousands of tiny specks milling around the tents and huts barely visible throughout the soldiers. A low clattering of weapons, murmuring and beating drums were eminating from them. They were too far away to be seen clearly, except to see they were in their thousands.  
  
Link looked behind them to see their army, rhythmically marching to beating drums. He seemed to be pessimistic at this time, watching their measly clan mass around, waiting for orders to fight. They were almost being lead to doom. But if they were, they were doing it in style.  
  
'Link- look!' Mentia pointed to the army. He could see a tiny speck fly very slowly through the sky, towards the army. In a few minutes it reached them. Suddenly, the whole army was silent. Not a sound could be heard from the desert direction. Pengal, Link, Mentia and NigSek watched with anticipation as what was going to happen.  
  
'NigSek, we don't have much time.' Mentia told him, swatting a fly which landed on her head. 'Quickly work out a plan. For the army.'  
  
'We don't have much time though.'  
  
'Use your heads!' She hissed. NigSek realized what she meant by that, and walked to the army.   
  
'Right then, lads.' He called to them, picking up their 'language'. They all stared up to the monster, who began to inhale deeply. His head split in half, and the army gasped as they saw the heads operate on themselves.   
  
'Right. Half of you will carry out what I order you to do...' said Nigrowb.  
  
'.... And half of you will carry out what I order you to do.' Said Sekapook. With their opposite thought processes, they would be able to work out a comprehensive idea between them, giving the retaliation a better chance of survival. Two heads were, indeed, better than one.  
  
He didn't have long to explain. Link saw, to his horror, as dust clouds were being blown up ahead from the army. A low rumbling sound from the stampede of soldiers, and clanging of metal objects were increasing in volume.  
  
The army knew of their location. They were charging for them!  
  
'Okay, everybody.' Pengal called to them, interrupting Nigrowb and Sekapook as they argued about whether to have clusters of soldiers or evenly spread out. 'They're coming for us!'  
  
'Wait wait.' Link ushered. 'They're slowing down.' The stampede of warriors diminished, and all of them stood still. The Strange, the four warriors, the Faerie and the Dragon, all lowered behind bushes and logs.  
  
Link peeped through a hole in the foliage. He could see them unevenly lined up, blocking the entire view of the horizon. They were horrible looking creatures, with the heads vaguely resembling noseless, earless, mouthless men, and parts of anatomy of insects. They had filthy little fly wings, which would buzz on occasions as they stood there, poised. They held double- edged swords in their hands, and their other arm would end with a shield. Spikes gloriously adorned all over their little bodies.  
  
A figure was flying up ahead. Actually, it seemed to buzz, hover and flap at the same time. As the thing came closer, Link heard a buzzing, clicking, hissing screech coming closer to them. The noise was getting louder and louder, and the thing flew closer and closer. It seemed to resemble a giant bug with only four legs. And a face.  
  
The thing stopped flapping and fell in front of the entire army. The wings crumpled up and folded over themselves, and a hard shell flipped in to cover the wings. It crouched and landed on the ground, sending up a little dust cloud from his clawed feet. He straightened up, and glanced around into the forest in front of him. He was sandy brown, covered with thorns jutting from all of the joins in his artopodic body, and had skinny yet strong arms and legs. His face came was crested in yet more spines. His mouth came to a point in front, and two spiked mandibles chattered as he stood there. On his chest, he brandished a small logo of a smashed skull painted in red. No doubt who this fearful hybrid was.  
  
The Second of the Angels Four, War.  
  
'Hero of Time!' He rasped loudly in a vague human voice. The sun beating down on the area cast deep dark shadows across his face. The crest on his head overshadowed his eyes, plunging the sockets in mystery.   
  
Nobody moved. They stood there watching, the army a little further back.  
  
The head twitched side to side, watching the foliage in front of him with great patience.   
  
He flicked his hands. Three extremely long claws came out of the base of his wrist, shining blindingly in the light of the sun beating down on them. The little creatures all maneuvered into poised positions. Hero of Time!!!' He screeched in rage. 'If you don't come out, we will attack with force and will!!!'  
  
Link stood up, and walked slowly out. He stared straight at the black socket holes in War's sly face. Something glinted as he did so. Then Link crouched and pulled his sword and shield out, ready to fight.  
  
War burst out laughing. It had screeching, hissing, screaming and rasping as he did so. It was no longer a human laugh. 'Look around you, maggot. My Peezt in thousands; you are a single foolish warrior who has already lost.'  
  
But Link was undeterred. 'War, you will go no further beyond this desert. You will die here, and so will all of your men!'  
  
'You and who's army?' He sneered, despite having no mouth.  
  
Link waved his sword in the air. Mentia jumped into view and cracked her whip. Pengal brandished his spear in fury. NigSek leapt out, causing the ground to shake slightly, roaring. His arms wavering around him again. Nektaa slithered out and shrieked at all of the creatures below, then proceeded to growl. All of the Strange stood up and shouted at the other army.  
  
The whole army backed away, but War was unimpressed. 'What do you think you are doing, Hero of Time?'  
  
'We are retaliating against you!' He shouted to the angel.   
  
'You can't win. We ARE War- it is our essence.' He faced the creatures. 'ATTACK!!' He screeched to them. He flew out of harms way as the Strange and the Peezt.  
  
A few stragglers from either side ran through the first line of soldiers. Then they all met, fighting for blood.  
  
The Strange forced spears into the Peezt. The Peezt lopped limbs off of the Strange. It was going equally for either side, for no clear winner was to be seen.  
  
Link was inundated by the little creatures. Three clinged onto his leg, and he was batting them off with the pointed end of the shield. Two more attacked from behind, pushing Link forward. He had his top slashed by one of their evil little swords, almost impaling him. Link righted himself up as they came in for another attack, and he slashed with his sword. He hit two that were closest to him. His sword chopped cleanly through their little bodies, and the pieces of them vanished in black, foul smelling clouds. Before he could admire that, one Peezt sliced the skin on his leg. He clenched down for it, as blood was trickling from it. He pushed another one that jumped for him with his shield, and was knocked out. He fell to the floor, unconscious. It wasn't that the creatures were extremely deadly- but their numbers and relentlessness was astounding, to a nightmare state.  
  
Link saw a large group of them heading for him. Nektaa, who was gliding through the air, swooped down and exhaled. A great heated fire gushed from his mouth with such force that the ground became burnt to a further crisp, and indented in a line. Most of them had been caught in the jet of fire and burnt to ashes instantly. The others had ignited and ran around screaming little insect screams before falling on the floor withering in pain. Their burning bodies were still crackling and burning when they stopped moving. A few had been lighted when they passed over the charred bodies of the fallen, burning themselves.  
  
Mentia and Pengal were working as a team, with Mentia individually picking off anyone coming from a distance, while he impaled any Peezt that came too close to them. It worked for a while, but they were still overpowering them. Pengal was killing them singly, but groups of three would edge in, then fours, then fives. They were beginning to fall weak of the army.  
  
NigSek was accomplishing more. He clawed at any that came close, engulfed further off Peezt, and even took bites out of the ones in front of him. He had to spit them out again, though, because they also tasted foul. Five jumped onto him from behind, trying to surprise him- and were eliminated by the metal spikes protruding from all over his green shell. They were as mindless as they were blood hungry.  
  
They seemed to be winning. But whenever they killed some, two more would pounce on them. Link looked around, stopping only to slice a Peezt that was running towards him, and one jumping to him at the side.  
  
'Mentia! Where's War?' Link shouted.  
  
She didn't even turn around, instead continuing to snap little creatures heads through the middle of their bald skulls. 'I don't know! Isn't he back at the base?' She shouted back.  
  
War landed in front of Pengal, still besides Mentia. She turned when she noticed him not moving. 'I'm afraid not, scum!' He rasped, edging closer to Pengal. He held his spear at the angel, who proceeded closer.   
  
He came to within a foot of him, and took one swipe at him. The end of the spear, up to his fist, was cut cleanly off, and landed beside a dead Strange.  
  
Pengal then pulled out a double- sided sword from a fallen Peezt. War simply stared at him.  
  
'Pengal, the weapons-' Mentia warned him.  
  
He looked down to his weapon- and saw it grow in front of him. It lengthened in sword blades and became barbed. The handle of the sword became sharp and cut into the palm of his hand. He let go of the weapon, and it fell to the floor. He held his hand which bled from the gash in his hand. He was helpless- he couldn't hold another weapon for the whole fight, and he was about to be killed.  
  
War pulled his arm back, ready to strike, when he saw the dragon come for him. He opened his wings and leapt into the air, brandishing his claws to Nektaa as he inhaled. Before he could blow a hot fire jet at him, he flew immediately forward and landed straight on the dragon's snout. He plunged his claws into the dragons cheeks, shredding them.  
  
Nektaa weaved to and fro in the air trying to shake him off back down to the chaos below, of which the Peezt were winning. Only a shadow of the army was left, and they were failing badly.  
  
'Mentia! We must get to War, and kill him!' Link concluded over the noise of war around them.  
  
'But how? He's attacking the dragon now!' She pointed to the straining dragon, having his face ripped.  
  
Pengal was watching with complete horror. 'Not my precious Nectar!' He ran after them in the air, dodging incoming Peezt.   
  
'Oi, War! Leave it out of this fight! It's me you want! Come for me!'  
  
War heard him, and retracted his claws. He jumped down to Pengal and stared down at him, mandibles salivating. The dragon flew away to swoop down on some more Peezt. NigSek, who was beginning to succeed, was now completely covered in the little creatures. He scratched and clawed and bit and stomped them off him, but they just reattached onto him again.  
  
War strided to Pengal, who was backing away. 'None of you can win.' He screamed. 'My army is infinite. It has stayed the same size as when this battle began. Take a look if you don't believe me.'  
  
They looked at what was rapidly becoming the remainder of the army. Yet the Peezt were the same mass as before, despite the numerous slayings.  
  
Then Link saw there were no more dead bodies of the Peezt around- where were they?  
  
He spotted one body on the floor glow red, then get up, grab a weapon and carry on fighting. Link looked shocked.  
  
'The army!' He crowed. 'They're regenerating!'  
  
War laughed silently. He was still edging closer to them. He sheathed his claws together, making a scraping noise. The dragon was passing overhead, coming again towards them.  
  
War's spines increased twice in length, bulked in muscle, and spread his wings. He leapt for them, arms outstretched and shrieking. They all crouched as they watched him leap high above them, almost in ecstasy from the oncoming slaughter.   
  
In mid air, a jet of fire passed over them all, aimed at the angel. The fire and the great heat waves spreading across what seemed to be the sky encompassed him. His wings were burnt off, his spikes charred and the whole of his body withered. His arms stretched out when he was hit by the flame breath. As Nektaa flew over, War's burnt body fell to the ground, head over heels. He rolled beyond the party as he hit the ground.  
  
All of the Peezt stopped their fighting immediately.  
  
War pushed his head and body off the ground, and turned over. He watched weakly as Link, Mentia and Pengal slowly walked closer to him. NigSek had shaken the Peezt off his body when they stopped moving, and sprinted over to corner the apocalyptic angel.  
  
'Go ahead- kill me.' He hissed. He had his head turned to the sky, finally showing his segmented eye, which flashed like a fly's eye. 'But you still won't win. My brothers will completely torment this land, and you can't do anything about it.' They still moved closer. He unsheathed what was left of his claws, and warded them off. Mentia snapped her whip at the claws, which snapped off. He crawled backwards from them, gaining speed.  
  
NigSek landed behind him, blocking his path of escape. War looked shakily up to the monster, staring with rage back down to him. He didn't move.  
  
'K-killing me is death.' He tried reasoning. 'If I die, his presence will only cause my essence to be one with his. You are making him stronger...'  
  
Link stopped. He sounded seriously right about it. If Death was the only thing a killed being looked forward to for the moment, he could very well have his power combined with lost souls. He might be stronger than he is now if they kill him.  
  
But he is only saying this to deter him from killing him. He is doing the deed for good- I has no pact with the evil angel they will eventually confront. Killing him will weaken Death, not strengthen him.  
  
Link fingered his sword and pointed it downwards at the angels body. He forced it downwards into the being.  
  
Immediately War leapt up. From his injury, light flowed. It had an air of peace in it, and spread joy onto his face for an instant as it shone to him. War strained, shrieking, screaming, shouting, squawking, hissing and rasping pain and fear, for death was unknown to him. Now he was experiencing it, in the light of good.  
  
Bright cracks appeared from the joints of his body. His skin flaked and peeled off, whirling around him in a semi- tornado. War clenched his fists and leapt at Link, but his hands were dissipating with his skin. He looked down at the stubs left of his arms, before crying in one last fleeting moment of plead as his whole body became flakes of white, circling around in the whirlwind, and sucked up into the air with the wind.  
  
The Peezt and the Strange all looked around themselves. The surviving ones healed instantly, but there were many dead lying on the floor. Link and the others were also healed from the curse of an angel being lifted.  
  
But nothing can bring those victims of War back. Not even life itself, for they had suffered by evil hands, and became lost with the bad of Death. Link pitied those souls, for they were fighting to make the world better, and yet they wouldn't be able to experience it.  
  
They had won, of course. War was now no longer a part of ISZAMI, or a threat to the people. They could retain peace between the land. War was gone, and so was Famine. But those were only two of the angels, and probably the weakest ones. And they now had no idea where to go now, and time was running short.  
  
What do they do now?  
  
CHAPTER 8: KNOWLEDGE  
  
The Strange and the Peezt, after standing dumbstruck by what has just happened, began to get accustomed to each other, and to mourn those who laid lifeless on the ground. Some of the Peezts, after freezing on the spot, were slain as the Strange retaliated when they had the chance. All of the people on both armies were influenced by War's aura, and had become savages.  
  
Link, admiring the two species of the desert and the forest becoming friendly, noticed a shiny object on the ground where War had been destroyed. He bent down to look at it closely. It was a pair of claws, which shone brightly from brilliant reflections of the desert sun. He had to shield his eyes to even look at it. With inquisitiveness, he picked it up and put it in his bag.  
  
Then began thinking. WHY exactly did he pick those claws up? Or the small hammer from Famine? When he stared at the objects in his bag, they seemed to faintly glow, as if storing great potential. When he first saw them, he felt inclined, almost forced to collect them with his belongings. They were beckoning to him, for him to take them and use them in the future. Perhaps they were relics of which to remind them of the angels when they are all finally defeated and ISZAMI is restored. But they must surely be more than that.....  
  
Pengal walked over to Link. 'Link, them Peezt have told us of where to go to find the last angel. It's in the forests, to the south.'  
  
'The south?' Link stated. He, like his whole generation of family, have had excellent geographical skills, for they could easily pinpoint where they have traveled and where they have been in comparison to the whole land. Link estimated that they had journeyed basically around the whole outskirts of the land (missing, to Link's disappointment, the ISZAMI Dome and the city of Gold), and were roughly in the north- western most area of ISZAMI. Traveling south would lead them into a forest- the same forest, in fact, that they had come into ISZAMI. The whole area was perfectly fine in terms of health.  
  
'The forest to the south...... is it.....'  
  
'.....Min Forest?' Mentia finished, thinking exactly the same thing as Link.  
  
Pengal pondered for a moment. 'Wait a minute' he said, and walked off to the closest Peezt, where he asked him the same question. They saw his bulging little head nod.  
  
'But we've already been in that place!' Mentia told him.  
  
'And there was nothing wrong with the forest! He can't be in there!' said Link.  
  
Pengal turned to the Peezt, who continued talking to him. Or rather, wheezing to him. Their mouths were simple vertical slits in their skulls, encasing their mouth and tongue. They really were quite revolting in appearance- but, as NigSek proved, appearances can be deceptive.  
  
Pengal walked back to them. 'They know that already, but they said for you to go there to find Pestilence- but not literally FIND him in there. There's something in the forest which will help us on our journey.'   
  
'What do you mean, us?' asked NigSek. He was surrounded by lots of intrigued Peezt, crowding around and staring up at him in awe. Never in their lives have they seen a huge, four armed dragon- like monster as impressive as him.  
  
He glanced into the eyes of the others. 'I presumed I could join your party.'  
  
Link tried to reason with him. 'Pengal, your Strange are saved from starvation, and have helped us enough with our fight with War. We don't want to burden you with more threats to your life.'  
  
He lifted his hands and waved them in front of Link. 'Nope, it's okay. I want to help you on your task. I don't want any other forces to act upon the whole as ISZAMI. We were almost faced death from lack of food- we would know exactly how the whole of ISZAMI might feel if the other angels weren't stopped.'  
  
Link shrugged. 'Very well. You will come helpful to us, too. With your dragon.' He looked about himself to find Nektaa. He was curled up on the floor, lightly sleeping.  
  
'Don' think so. He won't come as helpful as you say he will.' Pengal warned him. 'We are traveling through a small forest, too low for Nektaa to fly through without injuring himself. He's too used to flying through the wide spaces and the huge canopies of the Krib Treetops to cope with anything smaller. But he might come in handy later on.' He looked at the sleeping serpent, and smiled.  
  
Within an hour of explaining to the Strange of his new journey, Pengal was ready to set off with the rest of them. They started to walk through the low grass and large bushes, the sun still beating down heavily on them as they tirelessly walked through the beginnings of the forest. After a while the trees grew larger and taller, and the grass disappeared, replaced by a shiny damp mat of dead leaves and soil. The forest was as green and pleasant as Link and Mentia had remembered it. That day where they had first walked though here, barely knowing each other, seemed an eternity ago.  
  
But now, under the same forest, they returned- and with an exceedingly unusual party! There was Link himself. There was Mentia, the army princess with a crippling history and an unfortunate future of chaos and fighting. There was Siriee, the Faerie who was blown over from Hyrule with a missing memory (who had also began to go quiet.) There was NigSek, the large creature with not only the secrets to the shield of light hidden within his two, quite literally split personalities, but was also forced to do evil in the world, just to keep it balanced. There was Pengal, a small gray warrior from the Treetops, leader of their tribe and also the acclaimed dragon tamer. And a slithery dragon, by the name of Nektaa, who was tamed for life and forever loyal to his master.   
  
And yet, as he traveled with them more, he began to grow fond of them all, in their own personal little ways that pleased Link. Characteristics that showed in so many people in the world, but never in different species, in so many mixtures of races and type, who were all friends, almost for life and death. Mentia, who pretended to be as tough with her royalty, yet loving and gentle deep down. NigSek, who was really kind despite his role in life, not to mention the often humorous occasions when the two parts of his head would argue. Pengal, who was as Strange as many could come, yet in an interestingly good way. The fearsome dragon, who was affectionate when not unleashing his great power on anything. Link liked every one of them, in a different way.  
  
They carried on walking through the forest, when they came to a ridge in the ground. Link followed it with his eyes to the left, where if went into the ground. It sank deeper and deeper. This is the beginning of the chasm they crossed before!  
  
'Siriee!' said Mentia. 'Here's the chasm you followed a few days ago!'  
  
Siriee slowly hovered over to the ledge that started it. 'Really? I don't remember it...' he admitted.  
  
Mentia cocked her head at him. 'Are you sure?' She inquired.  
  
He dimmed for a while, then flashed. 'Yes! I remember it now!' He flew back to Link and nestled into his sack, floating through a hole in the cover.  
  
Link and Mentia exchanged glances. How could Siriee forget that?  
  
Pengal started. 'The Peezt said we would find it if we walked down into that chasm.' He told them.   
  
With that, Link lead them down the ledge into the pathway. It slowly turned into a trench, then got deeper, then eventually the two edges of the forest were towering over them. They stared up, and could only see the green leaves of the canopy. The sides of the chasm were earthy and crumbly. As they rested their hands on the side, more soil would come off and fall on the base of the chasm, which was hardening. Into a path.  
  
After a trek they were deeper yet into the ground. Reminding himself, he looked up to see if the trunk he slashed down was still bridging the gap. When they passed by the supposed spot, it wasn't. Instead, it was blocking them, right across the path.  
  
NigSek stomped forward, unsheathing his claws. He began scraping through the bark of the tree, gouging out huge chunks of the bark, splinters showering behind him. Within a while he managed to carve a thin passageway through the tree, wedged into both walls of the chasm. All of them managed to squeeze through with no problems, NigSek hopping over the narrow path. Nektaa, of course, simply overstepped it. He was uncomfortably squashed between the narrow walls of the chasm. Pengal glanced back to see the dragons trouble, and concluded. 'Nektaa, you wait up in the forest for us. Pull us out on the warning.'  
  
The dragon snorted, blowing a ring of smoke from his nose, and climbed out of the chasm like a long, thin lizard. His tail slipped out over the edge, out of view.  
  
'What did they say was down here, exactly?' Mentia asked Pengal.  
  
He scratched the flaky skin caressing his head. 'I'm not sure, really. They mentioned something about a test, a ghost, and a source of power at the end.'   
  
'Oh.' She carried on walking forward, through the extremely dark chasm. A light shone from beyond the corner.  
  
They rounded the corner to find, through the wall of the chasm, a pathway, lighted by torches. They proceeded through this cavern, the air musty and smoked. Roots hung from a few spots in the ceiling, which was fortunately high enough to accommodate for NigSek's height.   
  
Through the winding caverns, they came to a solid stone door. Broken pillars stood beside the doorway, made from polished marble. In front of the door stood a small, fat ghost. He had stubby little arms with tiny claws, a short, curly tail and wisps of his gray body pointing to spiky ears on either side of his wide head. He had two little red eyes, and a wide mouth. Its eyes twitched around nervously.  
  
Link stood out from behind the corner and walked to the little ghost. 'What is your intentions?' The ghost asked him with an impish, grotty voice.  
  
Link walked closer. 'I am Link of Hyrule. What are your intentions, spirit?'  
  
The ghost hovered up to stare at Link level in his eyes. The others walked out from the corner too, wary of any danger he could be in. 'I am Gengaa, keeper of the source of knowledge, awaiting the Hero of Time.' He showed his large bright teeth as he was speaking.  
  
Link reached for his Hylian shield. 'Then your wait is over.' He told the ghost, holding his shield in his right hand. 'For I am that hero whom you are looking for.'   
  
Gengaa looked at his shield, admiring the Triforce symbol engraved with gold onto it. He then turned to Link, and grinned. 'You'll have to do better than that to convince me.' He said, lowering to the ground. 'The true Hero of Time would be able to find the source of knowledge in this temple behind me. Nobody else has succeeded.'  
  
Mentia asked Gengaa. 'We were told it was the source of power.'  
  
Gengaa looked to Mentia, eyeing her as she stood there, her cape tressled out behind her. He tutted in a cynical manner.  
  
'You really have no chance, you who presumed one thing and minds of single strands. The most powerful beings in very existence are entirely based upon knowledge, for they use it to create and maintain the whole world. There is no knowledge that is not power.'  
  
Pengal, NigSek and Mentia stood besides link as they watched the ghost dictate to them. 'Knowledge can never hope to fulfill its potential, however, without control and understanding. Without these, knowledge becomes confusing illusions, even ending in the punishment of the poor fool who thinks he can become all powerful by gaining it. This Temple shall test your true control over yourselves- only then can you truly gain the only power of the world- the knowledge which I guard.'  
  
Gengaa faded away, cackling in a mischievous way, echoing around the hall they were standing in.   
  
The door Gengaa was guarding lifted creakingly and grinding up into the archway. Inside the temple, through the doorway, was a dark, cold hallway. Mist smoothly floated through the eerie place, large marble pillars aligned with each other to create the appearance of exact symmetry in there.  
  
Link walked in first, then Mentia, then NigSek. Pengal came in last. Then the door ground down onto the floor, cutting them off from outside. There were not lights or torches in visible distance, yet the area was illuminated. They walked around on the smooth hard ground, through the pillars. Their footsteps echoed all around the entire temple. Their breath was visible from the temperature of the place.  
  
Link looked around himself. 'What do we do now?' He asked the others.  
  
'Beats me.' NigSek said. He looked around himself.  
  
'What's the matter?' Mentia inquired.  
  
'I didn't say anything just then.' He began to protest. They all stared at him.  
  
'Yeah, it was me!' Something exclaimed in NigSek's voice. They all saw it that time, and looked around trying to find the imitator to NigSek.  
  
'The tail! The tail!' The voice shouted angrily.  
  
NigSek looked at his long muscled tail- and discovered to his shock that it had grown a mouth. NigSek seemed confused.  
  
'NigSek, why is your tail speaking?' Pengal asked.  
  
'I'm not talking.' The tail said.   
  
Mentia screwed her face up in confusion as she watched the monster have a conversation with his tail. Suddenly her face lifted off and floated further out. Everyone looked at her as the woman, currently having no facial features, silently grabbed for the face to try and catch it. It popped, and her face blinked back onto her head again. He felt dizzy. 'What in Kench..?' She started.  
  
'That's an aspect of the knowledge in this temple.' The tail explained to them. 'Those who cannot grasp it see it as warped images and confusion. So for a while you will see confusion all around you. Ask that Hylian's shield.'  
  
'That's right.' A voice directly behind Link replied. Link turned to show the shield to the rest of the party. 'We are not really speaking, but lack of control precepts that we are having a conversation with you people.'  
  
'Blimey.' Stated Pengal, placing his hand on his hip.  
  
'For now it will appear petty.' The shield continued. 'But in time, losing control will stretch reality beyond compare, recreating your greatest dreams, your worst nightmares, even your future destinies. You will plunge into madness, and you will die.'  
  
'Well, see ya.' The mouths on the tail and the shield both vanished. They were standing there, alone.  
  
'Do you think all that was true?' Mentia asked quietly.  
  
'We can't afford to believe or not to believe anything in this crazy temple.' NigSek answered. 'We will have to ignore them.'  
  
'Hey, you lot. Where's the entrance?' Pengal said nervously.  
  
They all looked in the direction they came from. The pillars stretched far down through the temple, far further than they had walked. There was no doorway in sight.  
  
'So how do we find the source of knowledge?' Siriee piped up.  
  
Link pondered, and had a thought. 'If we were to search for it, it might take forever in our small group. Perhaps we should split up into separate parties.'  
  
NigSek raised a smile. 'I can travel with one person, because of my talent.' His head split in half again. The two heads operated again. 'Because of our conflicting personalities.....' Started Nigrowb.  
  
'.... We would in effect, be neutralized by the madness.' Finished Sekapook.  
  
Link nodded. Yet again, there was sense in that idea. 'Very well. Pengal, you can travel with NigSek. Mentia, Siriee and I will go together.' Mentia almost smiled when he heard that. 'We shall meet here in a time if we fail to find anything.'  
  
Both parties went in different directions. They watched behind them as either group of people would fade away through the darkness.  
  
Link and Mentia walked down through the pillars, Siriee floating besides them. Up ahead, what they could see of the temple began to change. The ceiling came into view, and the marbled pillars decreased in number. The walls also came into view as they narrowed down into a rectangular corridor. The stony architecture went yellow in color, with deep purple patches on the walls.  
  
'This is familiar....' He murmured.  
  
'What?' Mentia asked.   
  
She stepped on a slab in the ground. A door hinged open underneath her, and she fell down screaming. 'Mentia!' Yelled Link, but her scream faded away. He looked down the hole in the ground, but it was plunged into eternal darkness.  
  
Link was aware of something, further down the corridor. He stayed still. He looked down the corridor, and saw nothing, but heard muffled footsteps pacing towards him. They grew louder and louder, but he still couldn't see anything. He looked down both ways of the corridor. Nothing. Yet the footsteps were increasing in volume and frequency. Now he could hear it breathing through a short snout. He spun around to look behind him.  
  
Ganon leapt for him, knocking him over.  
  
Mentia landed after falling for a great length of time down the narrow hole. She rolled to comfort the impact of the landing. She looked around herself, and was surprised.  
  
She was in a field, a grassy, flat field. Hills rolled in the distance into small woods at the base of them, and the sky was pleasantly clear and rich blue. She looked up to see the hole she had fallen into- and could only see the blue sky, up above her. She stared into the sun, and had to avert her eyes because of the brightness. For a while, her eyes played tag with a small red spot which she could see, before it faded away. There was a fresh smell of flowers, and the wind was calm.  
  
Mentia walked forward, without meaning. She didn't know where she was, or what she was to do here, or how she was to get out. All she could do was walk around, to try and find someone.  
  
And find someone she did. A woman in her mid- fourties ran right for her. She had the same costume as Mentia- the violet cape, the blue leather boots, the shoulder pad, yet she wasn't the same person in any way. Mentia squinted to see her face, then instantly recognized her.  
  
'M- mother...?' She murmured.  
  
'Mentia!' Her mother cried, finally reaching her and hugging her. But her hug was cold. Despite her crying and squeezing, she felt unfriendly. Mentia slowly reached around with her arms and hugged.  
  
Her mother looked back at her through teary eyes. 'I thought I would never see you again!' She blubbed. Mentia stared into her eyes. Deep red, like Mentia's, but not quite the same as her mothers. The pupils were dull and unaffectionate.   
  
But this is what she saw her mother like. She was fake when being nice to people- she was spiteful and greedy, after many years outside of Kench and raising an army. When she was nice, she was laughably fake about it. In fact, this was her most convincing act to date. Mentia hugged her again with confidence.  
  
She carried on. 'I'm sorry I sent you on that silly trip. It was meant for me, and I sent you through selfishness.' Her graying hair flung elegantly behind her as she pushed it back with her hand. Mentia was beginning to get teary around the eyes too.  
  
'But now we are together again. You have no need to finish your adventure. Come with me.' She lead her across the field, towards a group of tents in the distance, with cannons and soldiers peppered around the place.  
  
As she always knew it, home.  
  
NigSek and Pengal walked together. The pillars and the darkness seemed never ending. Because of NigSek's split head, they were still walking uneven, and were swinging their arms to keep the rhythm.   
  
Pengal began to talk idly. 'So how did you meet up with those two, then?' He addressed both heads.  
  
Both seemed abashed. 'Well, it was a bit on the misunderstanding side........'  
  
'Yeah, Nigrowb was going to eat them both!' Sekapook mocked.  
  
'Shut up, Sekapook! We were both going to eat them!' Nigrowb snapped back.  
  
'Well, you were going to gnaw more bones on your side of the mouth.' He replied.  
  
Nigrowb shook his part of the head. 'WE were going to devour them, when I noticed the Triforce symbol on Link's shield.....'  
  
'.....And to make up for nearly killing them, we offered our help to them.'  
  
'Oh.' Pengal and NigSek both walked down the corridors, passing pillar after pillar after marble pillar. He asked again. 'Why does it have to be Link who leads against the Angels Four.'  
  
'Because he is the Hero of Time. And so was his father, and his father's father, and so forth.........'  
  
'.....also, they have rid their own land single- handedly of the tyrant he calls 'Ganon'.......'  
  
'......and even awoke the Wind Fish from his multi- millennium slumber..........'  
  
'..... so naturally he was chosen to defeat the angels.'  
  
Pengal had a sudden thought. 'Was he prophesied to defeat the Angels Four?'  
  
Both heads knocked back in horror. 'No. He wasn't. An angel said to look for the Hero of Time........'  
  
'.....but it was never said that he would save our world.' They individually stated.  
  
Pengal was also anxious. ' So he could die?' He slowly asked. 'And us with him?'  
  
Both heads sadly nodded.  
  
Then they heard something. It was a screaming, very faint, from down the corridor. They both ran, through the darkness and pass the pillars, lead by the screaming which was getting louder. Eventually, they reached where it came from.  
  
Beside one of the pillars, a small Strange was kneeling. It was a female Strange, and nicely proportioned despite her ugly head with spikes jutting from it. She was breathing heavily, her head down to the floor.  
  
NigSek and Pengal slowly walked towards them- and she looked up, horrified. In her hands, she cradled a baby, asleep. She looked straight into Pengals eyes, and her identity hit him.  
  
'Charlotte..... my wife....' Pengal walked closer to her, but she backed away, staring straight at the creature behind him.  
  
Nigrowb and Sekapook looked at her. She, despite her fragile body and knelt position, was trying to protect her baby from him. Like normal people would do if they saw a huge, four- armed monster towering over her, awaiting the time for when she would be devoured in the creature's large jaws and sharp teeth. Perhaps the baby would be spared by the monster, and may survive, somehow.  
  
But they both knew that was never the case. He had come across mothers with newly born children coming across his lair, and he would look down onto them like he was doing now, but without remorse would grab her screaming, tear individual parts of her body off and eat them, the woman shouting in anguish. The baby, now crying, would simply fit in his mouth and be gone in one crunch......  
  
He tried not to think of it. He had acted a monster. Far more than what he was prepared for or what he wanted to be. He was a heartless killing machine, but did it for the sake of the land. Yet he had taken innocent people, and eaten them like any other person who found their way into his dungeon. But now he was acting noble for the temporary time, he had a chance to see it from other people's views, and saw that he, in doing good, was actually deeply evil.  
  
Both heads roared out up to the ceiling, in shame and frustration.  
  
Link rolled across the floor, his nose bleeding, and winded from the impact. He staggered to get up onto his feet. Walking towards him was the one true fear of his life, the only enemy he had known and throughout his generation of family. The muscled beast, with his pig- like snout and cruel tusks from his mouth, stood before him, wielding his magic staff. The ends began to glow, and spread dark magic in little specks around him. He sneered at Link staring up at him.  
  
'Ganon....' Link stuttered. 'I've killed you.....'  
  
Ganon simply snorted and flung his staff at Link. The long staff propelled itself through the air, flying with magic, straight for him. Link dodged to the side to avoid it, but the side of it smacked into his face, spinning him to the floor. He became dazed and was losing concentration.  
  
Ganon walked over to him, his clawed feet softly stepping onto the cold hard floor. Link laid there, waiting for the right time. His breath was wheezing loudly as he came closer.  
  
He reached Link- and was tripped up by Link's kicking foot. Ganon fell to the floor on his back, whereupon Link jumped up, grabbed his sword and pointed it at the beast's neck. 'You cannot be Ganon.' Link growled. 'He died in Hyrule, from the Master Sword. I have overcome my worst nightmares before- I can do it again.'  
  
The Ganon shrunk. He began to change shape, and turned clearer. Link looked in surprise as Ganon became nothing more than an amorphous blob with eyes. Inside its pink body swirled tiny wisps of smoke, like a bottle holding water, which whizzed around frantically when Link held his sword to him.  
  
'Kiiiiiiiitch!' The little thing cried.  
  
'What?' Link asked rhetorically. The thing jumped up, squishing as it landed on the floor, then hopped down the corridor, disappearing from sight. The corridor then faded away, and Link was left standing in the giant hallway of pillars and mist.  
  
'They're testing us!' Link breathed. This had all become clear to him. Now that they had become separate, the other people are now more vulnerable, as they had their own fears, dreams, and so forth. As a team of widely spread individuals, very little affected them all. Now they had individual things being picked up by Gengaa and the creatures that infest this old temple. His was Ganon, but he overcame it like he did before. No doubt the others would have to too.  
  
But where were they all? Link began shivering.   
  
Mentia was befuddled- one moment she was trying to find the source of knowledge in the temple, the next thing she was at home, with her mother, in her own tent. She looked around at all her stuff under the cloth covering that she called the roof, and saw that it was exactly as she left it, almost a month ago. Her elegantly decorated brush given to her mother when she still lived at the castle, with its curled silver handle. She slowly picked it up, and looked into her cracked square mirror leaning on the tabletop, and combed through her long silky hair. It rolled down as she ran her hand through her hair, and fell gently behind her head, as loose as her cape which draped over the stool she was sat on. The tent was ragged and beaten, yet was the equal form of royalty she had known for twenty years.   
  
'Mentia.....?'  
  
She turned to look at the entrance. Her mother stood there, with her arm folded in front of her. In her other hand, she held a beautiful silken dress, rich violet in color, and completely clean and new- it had been spared from the mud of the field that caked around everything else around there.  
  
She took a few steps towards her. 'I saved this for you. I wanted you to have it when you were old enough.' She looked at it, then at Mentia. 'It used to be mine, when I was your age. The King fell in love with me when I was dressed in it, when we first met. Perhaps you can wear it to find someone you love.' She handed it carefully to Mentia, who stared at it in amazement. It was incredibly pretty, and she could see tiny crystal stones woven into the fabric.  
  
After she undressed and put on the dress, she spun around on the spot, and the base flew out gracefully. 'You look beautiful.' Her mother remarked.  
  
Through all this, Mentia's conscious memory of her task at hand had slipped away from her. As she sat down with her mother, she slowly lost her memory of her ship, her crew, ISZAMI, of the Angels Four, of Pengal, of NigSek, and of Siriee. But her final memory, of Link, stayed. Her mind drifted from her mother's babbling, and slowly onto the young, handsome man she had traveled with. Before she didn't care, but now she knew she really wasn't a warrior princess, she became affectionate outwardly, and really experienced emotions she wasn't able to in the confounds of her rebellious army. She was sympathetic, she was caring, she was remorseful, and she had good friends. Especially the Hylian, only a year older than her.   
  
Her old dream was to be home, with her mother, a caring, kind mother she never knew, and not to have anything to worry about. But on her adventure, she had many other wishes that were already filled in, now she was in with them. She was by herself, far from her mother's ambitions of getting their land back. She was doing great deeds for a land in need. And, she had someone she loved.  
  
She loved Link. Link was her real dream, not this.  
  
Immediately, the surroundings vanished, and she was standing next to Link in the old temple. Her mother had turned into a small blob, with wispy smoke inside it. It screamed something, then hopped off.  
  
'Mentia!' Link cried.  
  
She ran straight up to him and hugged him. He was warm and friendly, underneath his fighting cover. 'Oh, Link! I... I almost fell for it!' She was crying.  
  
'It almost had me, as well.' She pulled away from him and stared into his blue eyes. 'This place is a test. We need to pass it all to carry on. If we don't, then we're doomed.'  
  
'Mmmm.' She agreed. But she didn't care, because now she was thinking clearer than she was before. She was in the place she wanted to be in the most, and had control of the knowledge she possessed.  
  
Then it struck her. 'Link! The source of knowledge!'  
  
'What about it?' He asked her.  
  
'All of these illusions we've experienced have been from our minds. We've been tested to have control over our own minds.....'  
  
Link somehow caught on. 'So we've been trying to look for the control to grasp this knowledge we've been seeking.' He gazed off into the distance. 'The Knowledge.... It's been in us all of this time!'  
  
'We've held the knowledge inside us, and now we've found it!'  
  
Both of them noticed the surroundings fizzing away. They were now standing in complete darkness, neither hot nor cold. They stared around themselves, and saw to the distance two figures running towards them. A faint rumbling sound was heard with the footsteps from that direction.  
  
The figures came closer. It turned out to be Pengal and NigSek, who had wandered off in the Temple, and came running to them.  
  
'Well done, you two!' Pengal called out to them. 'You must have done something good toget us here!'  
  
'You must have shattered Gengaa's illusions......' Nigrowb exclaimed.  
  
'...... and gained control over the knowledge!' Sekapook exclaimed too.  
  
A small figure fissured in front of them all. It formed into the little gray ghost, who was jumping up and down on the spot, enraged. He broadened the snarl on his mouth to show off his large teeth.  
  
'No!! It can't be!' Gengaa shouted, flustered. 'You ARE The Hero of Time! Only you could've broken my spell to the book of knowledge!'  
  
'Yeah!' Siriee shouted back, slightly quieter than the ghost. 'So give us the book, half- pint!'  
  
The ghost growled. 'I've still got a few tricks up my sleeve to settle with you five, though. It's not over yet- now you have to deal with me!' He disappeared, laughing.  
  
They all looked around themselves, trying to find him. He flashed before them, and disappeared. Again he did it to the side. They had no chance to even catch him.  
  
Nigrowb thought. 'He must be stopped so he can be hurt properly.'  
  
'He'll keep doing this until we get dizzy.' Sekapook added.  
  
Suddenly, Gengaa appeared, and jumped at Link's leg. He bit into his foot, not far enough to draw blood, but enough to hurt. Link shook his foot to try and get him off. 'He's on my leg!' Link called to the others.  
  
They all started to stab at him, carefully so as not to touch Link's shaking leg. The moment anything passed through him, he disappeared. Link inspected the bite marks that graced his shin.  
  
He appeared again, on Pengal's arm. He waved it in pain. 'The little git's on me, now!' He shouted.  
  
Mentia thought in the confusion, and pulled out her pouch of powder. 'Pengal, hold your breath. Whatever you do, don't breath this in.' She warned him.  
  
'That's a bit on the hard side, considering the fact that HE'S HURTING ME!!' He yelled as the ghost gnawed into his skin. His eyes widened as he saw a trickle of blood finally coming out of the teeth wounds.  
  
Mentia pinched a bit of powder and blew gently. The dust flew over to Pengal and Gengaa. Pengal held his breath, and in hearing the conversation, so did Gengaa.  
  
But then, Gengaa's eyes seemed to almost pop out. For his whole body had become solid. He lost his transparent look, and became a more deeper gray tone.   
  
He let go of Pengal's arm and dropped to the floor. He looked at his chubby hands, then yelped. 'I'M SOLID!' He shouted, running around in circles. All of the others looked at themselves, then watched the ghost stand still and strain. His face turned momentarily red, then he stopped. He looked shocked. 'Why can't I teleport?' He asked. 'I'm solid! How did that happen?'  
  
NigSek formed his head back together again. 'You won't be in a single solid piece for long, if you don't give us the source of knowledge!' He wavered his arms around himself, in an attempt to scare him.  
  
Gengaa tried to keep his secret for longer. 'Why should I help you, monster?' He scowled.  
  
NigSek grabbed the small ghost with two arms. He unsheathed the claws on his other two arms, to the horror of the little ghost, who gulped.   
  
'Because if you don't help us.' Link told the ghost in a semi- polite manner. 'Our friend might have to work it out of you, by force.' Gengaa looked into the snarling face of the monster, two large red eyes staring back at him. NigSek's huge sharp teeth showed in a forbidding manner. Gengaa was vulnerable now- and if he valued his health, he shouldn't abuse it.  
  
'Okay, okay.' Gengaa gave in. 'I'll give you the source of power now.' He gestured, and a pedestal materialized beside the party. They all looked at it, and saw that, on top of it, was a beacon of energy.  
  
'That's it?' Mentia remarked.  
  
'Yes! Yes! Now let me go!' NigSek looked at the shaky little ghost, who would probably have been sweating by now if ghosts could sweat. NigSek smiled, showing his teeth for one last time, and let go. The ghost flopped onto the floor with a thud. He sprang up onto his feet, looking up at NigSek. He growled down at him, and the ghost ran as fast as he could to the exit that appeared behind the party, never to be seen again.  
  
CHAPTER 9: PESTILENCE  
  
After admiring Gengaa's absence, they all crowded around the pedestal. Like all of the architecture in the temple it was marble, but wide cracks adorned over the whole thing, and it looked like it was going to fall down any minute. But with all of its old age and ragged look, the beacon that glowered gently above it seemed to hum with power. This was, indeed, the source of knowledge in the whole land.  
  
Link slowly reached out to it. As he did, a whirl of the beacon reached out to gently caress his hand in white spiritual energy. The others looked on astounded.  
  
'Link...' Mentia murmured.  
  
He reached out more. The whirl expanded and enveloped his hand, then his arm, then his whole body. Link closed his eyes and breathed in deeply, relaxing as the great surge of memories and knowledge came to him, all within a few seconds. Wisps of light flickered around him, slowly lifting him up into the air. The surroundings brightened as he floated in mid air, arms stretched out and allowing the process to happen. Then the place flashed, and Link slowly fell back down to the floor. Link landed, kneeling down to the pedestal.  
  
Then he opened his eyes. The whole history of this land was crammed into his mind, and it almost hurt his head.  
  
'Link!' Pengal cried. 'Are you alright?'  
  
'I...I...' Link stuttered. He stood up, a little shaky, and turned to the others. 'I know everything. All about ISZAMI, its past.'  
  
'Do you know where we can find the other angels?' NigSek asked.  
  
Link opened his mouth. He suddenly felt ashamed. 'No.' He admitted.  
  
Everyone sighed with disappointment. 'Are you sure? Don't you even have an idea?'  
  
'Let me think.....' The history of the land flashed into his memory, with himself narrating to the other members.  
  
'Long before the creation of Hyrule, ISZAMI, and the other lands of the world, before even the creation of the three goddesses themselves, four Gods had existed. They were utterly infinite; no life, no death, no full existence, no creation, no destruction. These four, all interwoven into each other, existed as one. They don't even exist as entities, but their essence is in the whole universe, the building block of it all. When the written language was created, and man desired reasons and explanations of everything they thought of, this entity became Dimension. The four once separate entities of Dimension were length, height, width and time. They were not even categorized as any type of god, but merely an implement for our existence. Nothing could have any kind of contact with them.  
  
Except for the chaos that surrounded all around them, of Good and Evil. This existed as long as Dimension did, forever created by their interwinding. Good heated them, while Evil threatened to destroy them. Dimension rested between these two forces. A third space rested above the entire colony, waiting for which of the two forces was to infect it. This is what the Sacred Object, the Triforce, represents- two triangles of good and evil, the third deciding the outcome of the universe. The space in the center, the blankness, represents Dimension- the neutral, everlasting God.  
  
One instant, immeasurable even in the slightest, Evil had cut Dimension. Three tiny drops of its life fluid dropped and fell into the chaos of good. The drops, falling as little droplets of almighty power, formed into three goddesses- Din, the goddess of Power, Nayru, the goddess of Wisdom, and Farore, the goddess of Courage. From the very existence of other elements beyond Good, Evil and Dimension, two more came to being- Life and Death, which also joined the energy of Dimension and became infinite like them. Then the world came into existence, and even many more besides.  
  
All of the worlds were in equal chaos to the void of the six Gods. So the three Golden Goddesses descended upon one land on one world, and blessed it with their own powers. This land became Hyrule, the birthplace of the gods, and the very center of our world. From Hyrule, life spread to other parts of this world.  
  
When the three goddesses left, they collided, and produced the key to all of their power. The symbol of the void in which they lived, and a doorway to just a fraction of every immortal entities power. The Sacred object, the Triforce.  
  
What was left out of history, however, was the mistake of Din. Her power scraped by Farore's golden body as they merged. When the Triforce was created, the scraped part of Farore seperated from the Sacred Object, falling far beyond Hyrule, landing in a distant land infested by aspects of Good and Evil. Their bodies all combined to create ISZAMI, a land that's balance between the fundamental forces was of utmost importance to it. Two evil spirits formed into two creatures of ISZAMI, as did two good spirits. One of Evil was Gengaa, the ghost that guarded the source of knowledge. Despite his nature, he is mortal, and can die. Another spirit, of good quality, was Kee, the great winged bird of the sky, also mortal. Two other mortals were created, one good and one evil. The evil was Eda' locca, a haggard old hermit, and- believe it or not- the good was NigSek, the creature of two minds.' NigSek was astounded when he heard this.  
  
'When ISZAMI was created, good overdosed in the creation of it, creating three havens of utmost good. One was the Nutrition Caves, the underground cavern rich in pure, good food. The second was the Desert, filled with peace- keeping Peezt due to their isolation. The third was the giant cloud, forever residing above the land, called Breath of Life. This purified the air, keeping the whole land healthy.  
  
One day in now measurable time, in the void of the Gods, the hole of where the chipped piece of the Triforce was missing appeared for a millionth of a second. In that time, it appeared over the chaos of evil and over the god of death. A few tiny specks of them flew through the hole, entering the land of ISZAMI. Because the chaos of Evil was larger it became three entities, and also infected the speck of the god of Death. The three remainders of Evil formed into the three overpowering aspects of man's evil today. They became War, Famine and Pestilence.  
  
........and the rest, you basically know.' Link repeated as he had done with Mentia before.  
  
NigSek was still shocked. 'I am of good spirit.....' He breathed.  
  
'We found War in the desert, and Famine in the Nutrition Caves, so Pestilence would be....'  
  
'...in the Breath of Life clouds. He's planning to infect the whole land, through it's own health controlling source!'  
  
Link turned to face the others. 'We must reach the cloud before he does so!' He exclaimed.  
  
They all ran out of the Temple, which by the torch light had now become just a hollowed out cave now that Gengaa's illusions were gone. They went up through the tunnel they came down and out into the chasm base they were in. Without pausing at all they ran around the base of the chasm, right up to the old fallen tree they had passed.  
  
Pengal put two fingers in his mouth and blew. A piercing whistle flew out of the chasm, up into the forest. Within a moment, Nektaa's saurian head popped into view, snorting with anticipation.  
  
'Nektaa. Could you lower your tail so we could get out?' He asked the dragon.  
  
The dragon slithered around and slowly lowered his tail down. The bumps down its back would do for stepping blocks, for they didn't have time to consider about anything else.  
  
In a mad dash they climbed up the creature's tail, with Nektaa clamping onto the ground above to hold steady. Eventually they all reached the forest above, rubbing eyes as they come into contact with the morning sunlight- apparently the whole night had passed by when they were in the temple.  
  
'Quick!' Pengal shouted. 'We need to get to an open area so my Nektaa can fly!'  
  
Link pointed the closest way out of the forest, which was the route they had traveled before. They came to the edge of the forest onto the spreading view of ISZAMI. But they didn't have time to admire the view, only to decipher which cloud was the Breath of Life. Fortunately, there was only one cloud out now- the same cloud which Link first saw, a week ago. 'That's the Breath of Life. Everyone get on Nektaa!'  
  
A scramble for the dragon, and everyone was sitting comfortably in niches along the dragons back (apart from NigSek, yet again.) Siriee had flown back into Link's backpack long before the dash against time to try and stop the third angel.  
  
The dragon, fully mounted by the party, snorted smoke into the air. Then he crawled along the ground, slithering along as well. He speeded up, his body lifting upwards, then left the ground altogether. His head went straight up, then downwards in a tall arc in the air, the long strands of bright orange hair flying gracefully with its body. Further up it went, arching again and raising higher into the sky. The wind was blowing strong against Link's face due to the velocity they were traveling at.   
  
Link looked down, onto the land slowly shrinking right before them. Nektaa's shadow appeared as merely a long band of black blotted against the land behind them. A few cloudy wisps of mist flew past them, the dragon passing through them like the canopies of the Krib Treetops. It roared out as it swooped down into the base of the arc. They were traveling at a great speed, but they still had a long way to go to reach the Breath of Life, high above the land and looming ever closer. It was indubitably massive.  
  
A few specks flew up from the cloud. They flew in an inordinate pattern in the sky, then came straight for them, firing little brown globules of goo. It was more Grubs!  
  
'Watch out, everyone!' Mentia warned them, as the dragon flew through the large group of Grubs, catching some in his mouth as he went. He wretched in mid- air, coughing out the remaining Grubs in his mouth which he didn't swallow. 'I know how you feel, Nektaa.' NigSek said sympathetically, patting its rough skin near where he was sitting.  
  
'We can't do much to stop them, being on the dragon.' Link realized. 'We'll have to let him and the Grubs battle it out themselves.'  
  
Battle it out they were doing. The dragon curved in the air, orientating on the amassed group of vile little flying creatures. He opened his mouth wide, and a huge jet of fire flew out of his mouth. Nektaa turned to follow the fleeing Grubs, the jet of fire turning with his head in the air. Pengal and Link were getting hot, sitting the furthest up the dragon's back, as its body close to its mouth became warmer.  
  
The dragon had good aim- it had wiped almost half of the group out. But now it was scattered, following and surrounding Nektaa as she swung around to try and orientate on the Grubs. It was also still recovering from the first blast it had unleashed, and would take a while for it to gather enough energy to do it again.  
  
NigSek helped. His eyes glowed, and he inhaled deeply, his chest rounding with the air. Then he blew out another fireball, singeing a Grub further off. He puffed all of the smoke out of his mouth, as still more Grubs pestered the frustrated dragon. He roared out to the Grubs, and some backed off slightly.  
  
'There's too many of them to pick off individually.' Pengal called to them. 'We need more to shoot them all down!' The Grubs, more confident, flew for the people sitting on top of the dragon's back, vomiting brown gunge at their faces. Most missed, and Link blocked the ones heading for him with his shield. One splatted on the back of Pengal's head, coating his head and some of the horns in brown goo. He grimaced. 'This stuff smells awful!' He protested. 'How could you think of eating them, NigSek?'  
  
'They looked tasty at the time.' He replied ruefully.  
  
'Hey, NigSek?' Mentia attracted his attention. 'I was thinking. You can split your head into two, can't you?'  
  
His head separated into two, and the two parts functioned singly. 'Like this?' They both asked.  
  
She nodded. 'Have you tried breathing fireballs like that?'  
  
The both looked shocked. 'I must admit that neither of us.......'  
  
'.......have tried it' They both said.  
  
Nigrowb's eye glowed, then Sekapook's. They inhaled as much as they could through their smaller mouthes, then blew. Two smaller fireballs flew off into separate directions, and both hit two Grubs either side of Nektaa, Their charred bodies slowly spun towards the ground, many miles below them all and spread like a tapestry before them. The cloud, unfortunately, was still many miles away.  
  
Grubs began attacking Nektaa now. They spat their brown globules at his body, lining his scaly skin with brown goo. The impacts merely annoyed the great beast, though. He turned and fired his jet of fire at the Grubs. His turning in the body spread the fire in an sweeping path across the sky, but nearly all of the Grubs flew quickly above and below it as it came past them. Yet more charred bodies trickled out of the sky and down below.   
  
Pengal bent down to Nektaa's ear. 'Get up to the clouds!' He shouted, so the dragon could hear. He immediately routed straight for the clouds again, ignoring the Grubs swirling around her like flies. NigSek turned around to face the oncoming Grubs, firing individual small fireballs at them to keep a constant flow of ammunition at them. It kept them away from them, and even burned a few flapping leather wings, making them spin.  
  
The cloud was coming closer and closer to them, but they were still miles away from it. And now, as Link turned to watch the Grubs flying to them, he saw something terrifying.  
  
The Grubs, now frustrated, grew smaller. Spines shot out all over their little bodies. Their faces stretched outwards, their once bulging eyes becoming little slits in their long heads. They all continued vomiting their fluids, which were now bright green in color.  
  
A splash of the green fluid landed on the tip of Nektaa's tail. It hissed as it slightly burned his skin, and the dragon lifted his head, screaming in a metallic grating noise. A little cloud of smoke, smelling faintly of flesh, dissipated from a burn mark on his long muscled tail.  
  
'They're serious now!' Link cried. Everyone turned to see the transformation the Grubs have gone under, and hastily agreed. The cloud was still coming closer to them, but so were the mutated Grubs. NigSek, as one final chance, formed his large head back together again, His eyes glowed, his mouth filled with air, an he blew a giant fireball at the group of Grubs. Unfortunately they were well aware of NigSek's attack pattern. They all separated, allowing the great heated flame pass right through them harmlessly, without even a single one being hit. NigSek roared with rage, almost thumping the side of Nektaa's body. 'Missed!' He grumbled.  
  
After what seemed like forever, they had reached the beginnings of the cloud, through thin, flimsy clouds of vapor. They were cold and dry, and caused them all to shiver. The Grubs flew slower through the drop in temperature, allowing Nektaa to get further away from them. In the clouds, they could see a small dome- shaped castle nestled in the fluffy clouds. Pengal guided the dragon towards it, and they veered in mid air, straight for it. The Grubs, having failed to stop the Hero of Time from reaching the Breath of Life broke off and stared helplessly at the dragon, flying through the mushroom- shaped clouds.   
  
Nektaa cautiously flew lower to the surface of the cloud. With surprise her arms touched solid matter, and she dug her claws in to slow herself down, clambering onto the ground and slowing down until she came to a complete stop. She crouched onto the surface of the cloud to allow everyone to jump off onto it.   
  
They all looked around in astonishment as they slowly walked onto the spongy mass of the cloud. They were above the level of the clouds, so all above them was simply the hue of the sky. The sun shone straight at them, so they all had to avert their eyes. Even Nektaa raised a scaly clawed arm to block the sunlight from her face.  
  
As they were standing there, they all realized two things. The first was the fact that they were sinking through the cloud mass. If they didn't keep moving, they could fall through the cloud covering and plummet down to the ground, many miles before them. Link looked down, and saw very faintly the ground below them all.  
  
The second thing they noticed, were some of the clouds. They were different. Very different, in fact. The clouding surrounding the small castle was an unhealthy green color.   
  
Within a while they traversed the fluffy cloud surface to the beginnings of the green clouds. It smelled of rotten asphalt, and didn't have the same consistency of the surrounding cloud. They were more liquid and slimy, and full of dusty specks.  
  
'Must be Pestilence's aura.' Mentia stated.  
  
'Hang on a minute.' Pengal was scratching his head, almost primitively. 'We're blessed by NigSek's spell of light. We can just walk through it.'  
  
'Huh- huh.' NigSek laughed, sarcastically. 'I dare you to try it first, if you are so confident. Walk through it, then.'  
  
Pengal strided to the very brink where the white turned to the green, and immediately slowed down. He stared at the slushy, almost pulsating clouding, and gulped. 'On second thoughts, I'm not that sure now.' He stuttered unconfidently. He took a few steps back to the party, looking at the huge area of vile green clouding, surround the impeccable castle in the distance.  
  
Link glanced along the brim of the makeshift moat. 'Do we actually know if it could harm us?' He asked. 'We haven't actually tested it yet.'  
  
'There's one way to find out' Mentia replied. She gently took Link's heavy sword out of his hand, and untied the cape around her neck. It seemed that without her cape, she lost a bit of her charm and opposive look about her, but she still retained her beauty. Her slim body was shown even more now that..... Link shook his head again, watching what she was doing.  
  
She had tied her cape to the other end of Link's sword, with an apple in a noose in the other side to weigh it down, so she could throw it into the clouds without getting his sword in it. She walked over to the green clouds, holding the apple end in her other hand. When she got there she stopped. She flung the apple end into the clouds, along with the long cape wrung around like a rope.  
  
The apple, and the cape, both shriveled. Green and white fur sprouted and grew over their surfaces, and the silk strands of the cape curled up and fell off the cape. Hastily she pulled it back out of the clouding while there was anything left of it.  
  
She held the sword up to the others, with the cape as far away from her as possible. Whatever there was left of it wasn't pretty. It was shrunken, moldy, worn, furry and black- and had sealed itself onto the tip of Link's sword.  
  
'That could have been us.' She warned the others. 'I noticed NigSek's magic power seeped into our clothing as well as our weapons and ourselves. It would affect everything it touched. I seriously doubt that the two magicians' power had worn off so quickly- it's lasted on ISZAMI dome for over six hundred years.'  
  
NigSek agreed. 'It's true our two powers haven't been so weakened as to be nullified within a week.'  
  
'So that means.... Pestilence's power is more powerful than either of the other two angels we have slain.' Interrupted Link.  
  
Pengal, befuddled by it all, piped in. 'So we can't even approach the angel?'  
  
NigSek comforted the Strange. 'Not as bad as this far. We would have shriveled up by this time, being even on the cloud- an angels aura is several miles in diameter. This is only a few hundred meters from the castle, which is probably where he is now.'  
  
'Okay, then. But we can't get within a few meters of him?'  
  
'Right.' NigSek philosophized.  
  
'So only these green clouds are infectious?' Link asked the wise monster. He paused to jump up, so he wouldn't sink lower. Everyone else paused for a moment to do the same.  
  
'I wouldn't bet on flying over using the dragon, if that is what you are thinking.' He told him. 'For all we know, even the air over the clouds could be infectious.'  
  
Mentia nodded. 'The cape and apple started to rot the moment they flew over the boundary. The air is poisoned as well.'  
  
'Which leaves us at square one.' Link concluded. He sighed, looking over to the sludgy clouds, up to the castle. It was decidedly small, for a castle. It had no nice features about it, and there were only a few turrets dotted around the perimeter of it- nothing compared to the splendor of Hyrule Castle. In fact, it looked like it was about to crumble down. Planks of wood stuck out of holes in the uneven stoned walls, and the turrets were suspiciously crooked. It was rotting away, in the midst of Pestilence's power.  
  
NigSek's face brightened. 'Hey! I have an idea.' He began. Everyone turned to look at him, waiting for his plan. 'There IS perhaps a way of getting across this moat. When I was living in my cave, I noticed that the little chunks of flesh I kept for later feasting never seemed to go moldy. Yet I had nothing to keep them frozen for away from any sort of fungi in the air.'  
  
'So?' Pengal shrugged. Despite his rule over the Strange, it was obvious he wasn't one for thinking.  
  
'My cavern was always hot- it never dropped below a temperature which could be described as 'mild'. It was because of my heat I gave out, due to the fire in my own belly.'   
  
Link admired some thoughts, and dismissed others. This was in-between, being philosiphal yet too technical for his mind to understand. Horse dung baffles brains, he chuckled to himself.  
  
Then his inherited power from the source of knowledge, diminishing from its first impact on him, kicked in. Then his mind rushed to provide the explanation and the solution; the disease that causes infection in food must consist of tiny animals in the air. They must also be very fussy on the type of temperature they can live in. If it's too cold or too hot, they are killed off. This moat before them is like a giant disease, which would be immune to fire, so....  
  
Link smiled. Thank goodness for what was left of the source of Knowledge! It only just occurred to him that ignorance of brain power whittled away his increased mental power; now he needed it the most at this time, he would have to ration it so it would last him for as long as it is needed. 'I see what you are saying. NigSek, could you try and burn a path through the moat with your fire breath?'  
  
'I'll try.' NigSek walked closer to the moat, a few steps back. His eyes glowed, and he inhaled. His chest inflated to an almost exaggerated proportion. Inside his mouth was a great vacuum of tiny blue flames which were sucked into his mouth.  
  
He puffed a huge, glowing fireball through the moat. Around the flaming globe the green sludge frazzled away, heat waves being left in its wake. The air looked slightly cleaner as well. But this was only temporary- immediately the sludge melted back around the pathway left by the fireball, the air went dirty again, and it looked untouched when the fireball left the moat out of the other side, exploding onto the side of the castle and momentarily flaming the entire wall facing them.  
  
'It's not enough.' NigSek stated, blowing the smoke out of his mouth.   
  
'Plus, you're hitting the castle.' Mentia added. 'It looks fragile enough already.' The castle was looking a little more shaky as the last flickers of fire licked the wall. A few stones dropped out of the turrets, which went even more crooked.  
  
'Oh that. That won't be a problem. We just shoot off into a direction that intercedes the cloud island the castle is on, so as to just miss the castle.' Then Link started pondering. 'But we need to keep it open more.'  
  
Pengal, left out of the intellectual thinking, came in. 'Perhaps we need a larger source of fire.' He suggested. He then whistled to Nektaa, who was curled up and asleep on the dreamy soft cloud lining. She immediately woke and part- wriggled, part- slithered and part- flew over to him. She nudged Pengal gently with his nose again, and snorted. Pengal walked over to the slit behind his eye and whispered something to him. She opened her mouth and hissed confirmation. Everyone stood back as the two slowly walked to the moat. Pengal pointed the direction she was to flame her breath to.  
  
Nektaa raised her head and opened her mouth so wide as to almost disjoint it. A huge, blasting heat of a jet of fire sliced its way through the moat in a second, flying off far into the sky beyond. The green rapidly shrunk from the flame to within a couple of meters diameter, and the air burned up even further than that. The party even had to crouch for cover from the searing heat forcing itself outwards from her mouth. This dragons attack was astoundingly deadly.  
  
After she stopped blowing fire, she closed her mouth, lowering it in a draping manner, exhausted. They watched as the intense heat, still along the path of the flame, kept the infected clouding at bay for about three minutes. Then it reluctantly edged back together again, in one piece.  
  
'So we have about three minutes to get across when the flames go.' Link summed up to the others. 'I think Nektaa will have to stay behind because of her great length. The rest will have to run.'  
  
'But... won't it be hot?' Asked Mentia slowly.   
  
'Yes, but we cannot worry about that. It shouldn't be exceedingly hot.'  
  
They all watched as Nektaa recovered her strength. She straightened her back more, and lifted her head in pride. Pengal called to her to try again, and to wait for them on this side of the moat when they ran. They lined up in single file to run through the path that will appear.  
  
Nektaa tried again. She exhaled a bigger jet of fire, making the green clouding retract back even further. The heat waves spread out even more, making the air ripple and blister with heat. They watched as the jet dissipated and faded, leaving a clear line of white clouds through the green toxic clouds.  
  
Then they ran. As fast as they could they sprinted through the path and towards the castle. The heat was still present and was uncomfortable, but Link gritted his teeth as he was running. Sweat broke out over his forehead and flicked off his face back behind him. The others were keeping pace, and they were halfway across the moat. It started to cool down, too, which was more bearable to them.  
  
But now the green clouds ebbed back together, closing in on them either side. As they got closer and closer to the castle, the white strip of clouds narrowed more and more. They picked up more speed to try and make it further, but the clouds were coming back so quickly it looked as though they might not make it. NigSek, leading up from the back was in the most danger, being the widest of the party, and the clouds almost reached his sides.  
  
Link finally leapt out of the distance from the clouding, and so did Mentia, rolling beside Link. Pengal simply ran through the now narrow gap still there. NigSek was still lagging behind, the sides of the clouding lining his body. The heat from him held it back slightly more, but barely; he wouldn't be able to make it.  
  
But as the green touched his skin, he made an effort to leap out from the moat, landing behind all of the party, on his feet. He looked dizzy.  
  
Mentia was ecstatic. 'You made it!' She cried, running up to him and hugging his snout. But then she shied away from him.  
  
Where the green of the clouding touched his body, his skin went pale and blotchy. Tiny specks of fungi had appeared in small clumps on his thighs, and his outward spreading arms looked numb. Pestilence's power had touched him, and in this brief time made him quite ill. He was having trouble keeping his head straight.  
  
'NigSek...' Link asked. 'Are you... okay?'  
  
He coughed. 'Just about. I won't be much use in battle, though.'  
  
Mentia walked up to the monster and lifted her hand to touch his arm. He pulled it away. 'I appreciate your concern, Mentia, but if you value your health then you would keep your berth away from me.' He turned away from her.   
  
'Mentia, he does have a point.' Link agreed. 'There's nothing we can do about it.'  
  
'But if he's left like this, he could die.' Mentia reasoned.  
  
'Then we had better find the Pestilence bloke.' Exclaimed Pengal. 'Lift his curse, then heal him.'  
  
Reluctantly Mentia kept quiet. She had really grown affectionate for NigSek, despite her distrust for him at first. As it is so often said, beauty is only skin deep, for it is what the person inside is like. But NigSek's position isn't as simple as that. He is a monster, both in looks and in character, for he eats people, and even preyed on the helpless and innocent, which in truth should make him downright nasty. But he has done it because of what the spirits have said about good and evil and keeping them balanced, and in truth has been ever loyal to the welfare of the land and the creatures in it, so ultimately it wouldn't lead to doom for all creatures. Ironically, by eating them. NigSek was a difficult creature to comprehend.  
  
They walked around the crumbly, dull gray castle, trying to find an entrance. NigSek kept up, but was badly crippled and slowed the party down. The castle was a lot larger up close than it seemed before, but was still small in comparison to others. Nevertheless it took them a while to walk around the facing wall. There were no windows in the wall, nor decorations, nor safety procedure like spikes of gargoyles. It was as bare and flat a wall as it could be, even if it was in its prime, which it clearly wasn't.  
  
The turned around the wall- and found that one side of the castle was completely missing. The castle only had three walls, and nothing inside the walls, from what they could see. They walked further around the corner onto the inside of the castle, to see what was in there.  
  
Inside the apparent courtyard of the castle, there was a huge pot in the middle. It was made of finely polished glass, and showed brilliantly the clear, cool blue water sloshing around its innards. On the side of the pot, trying to digest the side of the cup, a sickly brown slob of slag- like substance was bubbling and pulsating, seemingly infuriated as it couldn't get into the pot.   
  
Link, Mentia and Pengal slowly walked closer to the pot and the sludge, NigSek lagging behind to compensate for his decreasing health. His coughing had become stronger, and the specks of fungi had become bigger. He was losing more control over his arms and merely held them limp beside his body. He watched the other three, followed by Siriee, who had suddenly flown out of Link's backpack.  
  
As Link walked closer, he saw something bob out of the sludge, stuck in the greasy muck. It was a small helmet, very dull and rusted. It momentarily floated around, then was enveloped by more sludge.  
  
'Did you see that? In the sludge?' Link pointed at the blob on the side. Mentia and Pengal shook their heads. Then both pointed at the sludge.  
  
Link looked back at the sludge. It was bubbling more, and a tentacle whipped out of it, almost slapping Link across the face. In a brief second he felt sick from the gassy flumes emitted from the brown tentacle. He jumped back, unsheathing his sword and pulling out his shield. The others got their weapons ready.  
  
Then, the sky above them darkened. Not from nighttime, but the air was full of little creature. They recognized them- it was the mutated Grubs, waiting for something. They watched the four down below with patience.  
  
Now the sludge slithered off of the pot and up closer to Mentia. The three edged backwards away from it.  
  
A bubble burst from the surface, then it quivered. It carried on shaking as it rose. The sludge slimed and slithered around, creating a small monolithic looking figure out of its own substance. The helmet floated up onto the top of it, and blinked white. Then the substance began changing again, but now into a more human shape. It settled rapidly into a hunchbacked, stinking man, with a mouth gaping wide open such as to completely hide his body. His arms curled inwards, his hands hanging down limp. The creature looked at the three with hollowed out, empty eyes.  
  
The Third of the Angels Four, Pestilence.  
  
'So you found me.' He wheezed, filthy smoke blowing out of his open, crooked mouth. 'And just in time, it may seem.'   
  
'Shut up you evil git!' Pengal shouted at him.   
  
Ignoring Pengal's unusual taunt, Link began. 'We are here to stop you in your plans, dark angel!' He held his sword low down, the point of it aimed squarely at Pestilence.  
  
Pestilence, in the fearless manner shown by all of the other angels, merely stood there, smiling. 'Howwwww do you propose to do that?' He wheezed. 'Try and come near me!' He limped slowly to them all, opening his mouth ever wider.   
  
They had forgotten about Pestilence's extra power- none of them can go within a few meters of the foul being. They had to propose to hurt him some other way. But they seemed to have time for that, as Pestilence was heavily influenced by his own power- he was too ill to run quickly, so the others simply stepped back away from him when he came too close.   
  
They were all watching the angel walking slowly to them, and didn't notice some Grubs speeding towards them. One swooped between Link and Mentia, grazing her arm. She clenched it in pain, then relaxed a bit more as Pestilence came closer. It seems funny that in a desperate circumstance you seem to forget pain altogether.  
  
Another one swooped down at Link, and splattered into his Hylian shield. It exploded in a squishy mess, then slopped onto the floor. Pestilence looked down at the remains in glee and limped closer to them.  
  
Link skipped back as Pestilence lunged at the corpse, crammed it into his mouth and swallowed it in half of a gulp. His arms filled out more, and he moved them more confidently. He then limped onwards to them.  
  
'Those Grubs are of his substance!' Link exclaimed. 'If he eats them, he becomes stronger!'  
  
Pestilence raised his head a little and puffed. A noxious brown cloud blew out of his mouth and floated for Mentia. She dodged it as it floated harmlessly into the distance and filtered into the air.  
  
Yet more Grubs flew down to them. They ducked down to avoid their low swoops, careful to avoid harming any of them. Pestilence carried on limping closer to them, but stopped after a while.   
  
He melted into the ground, his face distorting horrifying like the skeleton they saw in Stokitle Village. Then he became a brown puddle resting lumpishly on the fluffy clouds. The clouding around him became a more greenish color. The surface of the puddle bubbled madly, and a brown tentacle raised out of the sludge, whirling around menacingly.  
  
It whipped around for Link, who leaned back to avoid it slapping him. He got another facefull of awful smelling smoke, and coughed heavily. The others avoided it as it came for them.  
  
As all this happened, NigSek watched with shame. He was slowly sickening, and lost most of the feeling in his arms. Yet he felt like a coward, keeping clear of the fight. Eventually the others will fail, as they haven't even hurt the angel yet. Link was becoming sick from inhaling the gases, and couldn't stop coughing. Pengal had now been hit on the leg with the tentacle, which splattered across his leg. It rapidly became infested with fungi, and Pengal fell to the floor screaming. His leg was shriveling hideously, turning blotted blue, then brown. Pengal gritted his teeth through the pain., not daring to look at his leg which had now turned black and wrinkled. Mentia shuddered and turned her face away, aghast. She had watched all of that happen in horror, as if the process of a rotting corpse had been increased to within a few seconds on his leg. Pengal was helpless.  
  
'Stand back everyone!' NigSek weakly called to them. He limped forward, and his eyes glowed. As everyone moved out of the way and the puddle reformed back to its original form, NigSek inhaled- making an asthmatic sound from his mouth, and deeply hurting his chest- and, with a cough he spluttered a fireball straight at the now re- formed being.  
  
Pestilence, helpless to move out of the way, absorbed the fireballs' effect full impact. His body crackled as it was set alight, and he bounced back from inertia. But he landed on his feet, and while still ablaze he relentlessly edged closer to the crippled party.  
  
But as Mentia cracked her whip at Pestilence's arm, nothing happened. The tip of it didn't rot, or crumble, or become infected. The flame all over him stopped his aura from taking effect. It was burning up the diseases from his body!  
  
'His aura- it's gone!' Mentia cried.  
  
'Yeah.' Link wheezed slightly. 'But we still can't hurt him!' For as Mentia's whip came into contact with Pestilence it stuck into his skin, and whipped out only a few drops of his substance. It trickled onto the floor and was absorbed into his body.  
  
The flames over Pestilence's body began to shrink, reducing the orange glow all around him. As they saw their master on fire the Grubs were kicking up a mean temper above them, whizzing around and lowering down to them. Individual ones swooped down to them all, but as most were crouched downwards from disease or illness, they missed entirely.  
  
Link had an idea as he looked straight into Pestilence's face, his helmet still floating on his liquid head. 'His helmet!' He called to Mentia weakly. 'Aim for his helmet!'  
  
She lashed her whip around her head again, readying another shot. Pestilence was inhaling, readying another breath of foul air. Before he exhaled, she flung her whip at his head.   
  
Squarely it flinched his helmet clean off his head, and it clanked to the floor below him.  
  
Pestilence paused. The Grubs squealed and buzzed around the air. The sky, which had become full of gasses, swirled around ever more. Link felt his body being rid of his illness, and he stood up with confidence. He held his sword out to Pestilence, who had started trembling.  
  
'My plan... has failed.' He wheezed slowly. 'But now..... our powers... will be.... One... with..... Death' Link ignored this as he held his sword out behind him, charging its awesome power up.  
  
'One...... with Death....... This land..... is..... now....... Dooomed....' Were his final words as Link's sword flashed through his gooey head.   
  
Without making a sound, Pestilence swung his head wildly around. His skin turned gray and crackled, fur growing out of the cracks appearing over him. Eventually he stopped moving, frozen forever in a stance of shock. The Grubs swirled around maniacally in the air, their master now dead. His body, all of a sudden, shattered, sending bits of him hurtling outwards from the point of explosion and sprinkling over the courtyard of the castle. In the place of Pestilence a small beam of light shot straight up into the air, through the sky and the Grubs and the clouds of gaseous toxins. With it, the foulness associated with him went too. The smoke was sucked up with it, and the screaming Grubs, both up in the air and over the whole of ISZAMI which the castle overlooked, were forced into the whirling smoky mass up in the air. Grubs flew past the castle with great speed, screaming past them in a high pitched wail. The pain left in Link and NigSek was lifted out like smoke, and Pengal's leg healed up faster than it dissolved. All of the disgusting creations and manifestations of Pestilence were whirling around in the sky, screaming and hissing and whizzing like an all powerful whirlwind high above. Within a single flash, it was all gone.  
  
Link looked at the others walking towards him. The castle had now disappeared entirely- it was a mere illusion set up by Pestilence, for some inexplicable reason. Link's expanded mind failed to find a logical explanation to the idea behind it. But the pot of clear blue water was still there, and the water in it glistened with the reflections of the bright sun through little droplets. The whole pot shone with clarity, like crystal.  
  
Nektaa, who had been waiting patiently for them to finish, slithered over to Pengal, yelping with joy. Pengal patted his snout as it loomed up onto him, nudging him. They all overlooked the whole of ISZAMI spread before them.   
  
'We've done it!' Siriee's tiny little voice cried excitedly. 'We've beaten the three apocalyptic angels of Famine, War and Death!'  
  
'But Death is still in existence.' Mentia remarked darkly. 'We have no idea where he may be. And his power alone can still destroy ISZAMI.'  
  
This was all true, Link thought. Over the last week they had trekked over almost the entire land, and they had slain three of the Angels Four. Now the starvation was removed from the Krib Treetops, which they could see almost below them. To the far off distance they could see the desert, which would have been further torn up if War's tyranny was allowed to flourish. In fact, small construction sites with pulleys and piles of bricks could be seen- the Peezt were starting to rebuild from scratch, to re-grow from stooping to the level of savages and bloodthirsty creatures. And finally, only a few minutes had elapsed since Pestilence was eliminated. He could have had access to the Breath of Life source, and infected the whole land with diseases. That is all now been prevented, and the land is now free of them.  
  
But Death is present. And, somehow, he will destroy the land if unprevented. There is nowhere that he could be, and they are running out of time. If he succeeds, and he terminates everything here, then there is nothing for them to suffer. No hunger, no fighting, and no diseases. There is just death, and the only way they can suffer is through downright elimination. So they were right; destroying the other three has doomed the land even more now- it will just die.  
  
And only he, the Hero of Time, was prophesied to stop him.  
  
CHAPTER 10: STALVAGIA  
  
After Link mindlessly picked up Pestilence's helmet they mounted on Nektaa again, and flew into the air. Link pinpointed to Stokitle Village, and Pengal directed the dragon to fly down to the large grassy fields around the village. Through the air it waved, floating side to side, his tail following his path in symmetry. They lowered closer and closer to the grassy green plains dotted about with tiny oak trees. Link could now see her shadow was now directly below them, the sun being directly over them, suggesting the time was midday. Wispy clouds zipped past them as they went further and further down towards the ground.  
  
Eventually they reached the ground. Scenery rushed past them as they skimmed across the field, Nektaa's shadow denting and buckling with the bumps of the grass they passed rapidly across. Nektaa's arms were held out behind her head and close to her body. They slowed down as they neared the village, and Nektaa lowered her arms to grab the ground and to stop. They jumped off her back and walked proudly into the village, lead by Link and Mentia.  
  
They walked through the open entrance, into the center of the village. People stared at them, some of them whispering to others as Link and Mentia appeared. Then they stopped and stared as NigSek stomped in, followed by Pengal, the strange little gray- skinned man with two earlobes. Nektaa popped her head through the entrance, and everyone backed away from the dragon's fearsome look. Nektaa eyed the villagers, salivating. The villagers walked back even more.   
  
'Nektaa- no!' Pengal told the dragon. Nektaa whined in a dragon- like style, and pulled her head out of the entrance, to the relief of everyone there.  
  
Link slowly crept into Stokitle's hut. He was lighting some of his hanging scents, glowing relaxed in the midst of the small, comfy place. 'Stokitle?....' He started.  
  
Stokitle slowly turned around. He looked to the doorway out of the corners of his eyes, to find Link standing there. 'Come in, come in.' He gestured.  
  
Before Mentia followed, she whispered to the other two. 'It might be wiser if you two stay out here. It's more polite, if you're not offended.' NigSek and Pengal nodded. She then entered the hut and stood besides Link.  
  
'Well well.' Stokitle smiled. 'Our Heroes from outside our land. What is it I can do for you two?'   
  
Link began. 'Stokitle, we have defeated War, Famine and Pestilence. But Death is still around.'  
  
'And we can't find him.' Said Mentia.  
  
'And so you came here to visit me, to see if I knew the answer.'   
  
Both of them nodded.  
  
Stokitle sighed a sad sigh of despair. 'Then I'm afraid your visit has been in vain. I am in as clueless a situation as your party is. You will have to search for him by yourselves.'  
  
They all stood thinking, when Siriee flew out of Link's bag again. 'He would be trying to get into the ISZAMI Dome, to the chipped piece of the Triforce.'  
  
Stokitle's eyes brightened. 'That's it! How could we forget that?' He face Link and Mentia. 'You must go there immediately, for the fate of everyone here!' He pointed to the door. 'Go! Now!'  
  
Link thanked him and walked out. They both explained to the others where they were to go, and the whole party walked out of the village. They mounted onto the dragon, and flew up again. Wildly they skimmed across the land, above trees and small rivers, finally approaching the Dome of the City of Gold, to Link's excitement. He had been waiting for this inevitable moment to travel to the fabulous and mysterious City, and now this was the time.  
  
Link, as an off- thought, pulled a small plum out of his backpack and bite a chunk out of it. He just realized he hadn't eaten for quite a while, and biting into the succulent fruit almost hurt his mouth, the cool and tasty juices filling the inside of his mouth. He swallowed the chunk, sighing as he felt it go down his throat.   
  
Mentia looked back to him. They were sitting at the back of the dragon, on the narrower part of her body. 'We've almost finished our journey, Link' She smiled. 'We will be known as heroes through time in this strange land.'  
  
'Yeah.' He said back, staring once again at her soft face, the blond lock of hair curling perfectly over her left eye, showing only her deep red eye looking at him. Her lips were succulent and full. He hadn't looked at her like this for a long time, it seemed. Now they had a pause in the task at hand, he took a moment to admire her beauty, even through the dried mud that marked her face in smudges.   
  
'You know, Link.' She began again. 'When we finish this, we will return to our old lives. Pengal will be going back to leading the Strange....'  
  
'NigSek will go back to living in the mountains, terrorizing people....' Link added.  
  
Then Mentia glanced away from his gaze. 'And you and I will return to our own lands.' She said sadly. 'Our own lands... far away from each other..'  
  
Link lifted a hand up to her shoulder. 'We will remember our adventure, probably for as long as we live.'  
  
His hand was met by Mentia's, which touched his gloved hand delicately. 'I will remember you, Link of Hyrule. For as long as I live.' Her eyes were gleaming, brimmed with the starting of a tear. He stifled it, and smiled at Link.  
  
Siriee zipped back to them both, zooming around their heads. 'Hey lovebirds!' He snapped at them. 'We've arrived. Look- it's the Dome!'  
  
Mentia and Link looked up, and saw the beautiful dome in the distance. It was astounding, with the sun shining off the shiny reflective shield of light, bronze in color. The tall, clean buildings inside were even more astounding. They dwarfed anything that exists today, even to an extent Hyrule Castle, and they looked as though they were gold plated. Fresh pure water trickled out from between the buildings, heading off towards the Krib Treetops and Lake Krib. The whole town sparkled in the sunlight up ahead. This was truly, the City of Gold.  
  
They landed close by the side of the Dome. It seemed to hum as it glowered. The shrubbery around the Dome was kept to a distance, but the grass underfoot around the Dome was very fresh and green. It was slightly moist from the rain a few days ago. Inside the Dome, the grass was even greener, purified more by the power emanating from the Triforce Splinter. The grass was greener on the other side, Link thought to himself. He smiled.  
  
But there was a problem; was Death on the outside of the Dome, or on the inside? He would have had a lot of trouble to get inside, but there was no trace of him out with them. Of course, the radius of the dome was almost a mile in diameter, meaning that he could be anywhere along the perimeter of ISZAMI Dome. Checking it themselves could take another day, which is something he would prefer not to waste.   
  
But he knew how to solve that problem. 'Siriee, could you look around the edge of the Dome to see if Death's anywhere along here?' He asked the Faerie.  
  
He glowed angrily. 'Must I do everything around here?' He moaned irritably.  
  
'Siriee.' Mentia said, frustrated. 'You've hardly done a thing lately. It's about time you filled your side of help.'  
  
He huffed, then zipped off around the edge of the shield.  
  
'Have you noticed what's wrong with him?' Mentia inquired. 'He used to be really enthusiastic- now he couldn't care less.'  
  
Link nodded agreement. 'I don't know why he's like that- was it something I said, or someone said?'  
  
'Well if it was, he holds a blimmin' long grudge!' Pengal remarked, raising a smile.   
  
Link peered through the dome shield of the City of Gold. He did expect there to be great spirits and souls zooming around inside, making the place look even more magical and marvelous. But he saw none. The whole place, in all of its glory, was deserted. Not a single moving thing was in there, and it didn't seem right. Link couldn't understand why- if it had anything to do with Death, he wouldn't hang around inside and simply freeze life inside the City- if Link was him he would immediately look for the splinter of power and obtain it for himself. But Link wasn't him- he was the Hero of Time, trying with all his might to stop him from doing just that.  
  
NigSek looked longingly into the City. 'Six hundred years....' He murmured. 'I could have been in here, with the others from the creation of this city. But I was forced to live here, to cause suffering, to inflict pain upon humans.....' He noticed Link looking at him side- on. He hung his head down. 'I'm sorry, Link.' He apologized.  
  
Link smiled. 'It's okay, NigSek. I understand full well.' He patted him on his broad shoulder (one of them), trying to comfort him. This place would also inspire NigSek, for it was here that he would have lived his life. But cruelly the spirits of the City forced him, a person of good essence, to balance evil in ISZAMI, which was tormenting, to say the least.   
  
Siriee met up with them from the other direction. 'Nope. He's not around the outside.' Siriee concluded. 'He must be inside the Dome.'  
  
They all looked unerringly at the menacing shield spread before them, towering high above. 'How did he get inside?' Pengal asked.  
  
'Or more importantly, how do WE get in?' Asked Mentia. Link opened his mouth to answer, but had none. He shut up.  
  
'Aren't we protected by the shield of light anyway?' Siriee mentioned. 'We should be able to walk in, can't we?'  
  
Everyone else looked at each other- that almost made sense, but nobody was going to try it out. 'I'm not sure it works like that.' NigSek told the Faerie.  
  
'How would you know, you stupid animal?' Siriee replied   
  
Maddened by the Faeries remark, NigSek split his head apart. The two pieces stared at him angrily. 'Because it was us....'  
  
'....that cast the spell!' They snapped.  
  
'So?' He said back. 'You don't know the boundaries of your own spells, or even your own personal powers.'  
  
'And that means you do, Siriee?' Link broke in. He raised his hands between the two to break their gaze at each other. Siriee humphed and flew away from the monster, who lost his temper slightly and growled. 'Is there any way we could test this?'  
  
Mentia reached back to grab her cape, then remembered she had already used it on the green cloud moat, and had rotted away since then. She shrugged.  
  
Pengal stepped forward and ripped a piece of material off the rim of his pants. 'I'll try.' He said. They watched him in anticipation as he, like Mentia did before, walked up to the rim of the shield and carefully threw the cloth into the shield. The cloth floated right through the glossy covering, and landed on the ground beyond, unscathed.  
  
NigSek, being a very forgiving creature, turned to the Faerie. 'I'm sorry.....'  
  
'...we doubted you.' The heads apologized.   
  
'And so you should be!' The Faerie retorted. He zipped onto the other side of the shield, awaiting the others. Slowly they walked across the line where the shield touched the ground. Link felt a tingling sensation go through his body as he crossed the line and onto the other side.   
  
To test the shield, Link picked up a rock on their side of the shield. He tossed it into the shield. As it hit it the rock widened, flattened and dissipated into the shield, becoming one with it. 'That could have happened to us.' He said to the others.  
  
Then Link forgot. The dragon! Nektaa wasn't covered by the shield of light. If he crossed over, he would disintegrate like the stone did. 'Pengal- stop Nektaa from crossing!' He shouted out. He saw Nektaa as she slowly slithered up to the shield edge. Pengal ran up to her, waving his hands and shaking his head anxiously to stop her. 'Nektaa. Wait for us! He called to her. Immediately she stopped. She curled her tail around her legs and rested her head onto the ground. She looked at Pengal with longing eyes. 'Good girl.' He called to her. They then departed, walking through the City of Gold.  
  
For an advanced race this city was spectacularly mind boggling. Altars, windows, doorways and plazas littered every street, and even up the walls of most of the buildings. Since spirits weren't confined by mortal coils they can move about freely, so they could place anything anywhere they wanted without being a burden to access. The streets, paths, even the trees were golden in color, and fresh and clean. It was comfortably cool, and there was no wind. There was also, more mystifyingly, nobody in sight. This was getting strange.  
  
Mentia glanced back to Link. 'Did you see how angry Siriee got then?'  
  
'Yes. It seemed quite unlike him to get that mad.'  
  
'It's quite unlike him to even talk.' She quietly laughed.  
  
'He seemed very enthusiastic about reaching the City of Gold. Enough to even........'  
  
They stopped talking. They had walked down a path, and the very end of it lead up to a glass ball hovering over a flight of stairs. The surrounding area was very bare.  
  
They walked up to it, almost following the leading Faerie, up to the stairs. It was there they realized that the ball was in fact hovering over an extremely deep hole, so far down as to almost seem bottomless. Inside the glass ball, an incredibly small, barely visible glint of an object flashed at them. The light that shone into their eyes filled them with a tiny bit of hope, power and knowledge, making them all more cheerful.  
  
Siriee hovered closer to it, but still over the stairs. 'The segment of the Triforce.' He said. But it wasn't his voice.  
  
'Why are you, of all people, interested in the segment of the Triforce?' Link asked.  
  
'Interested enough to only take interest when we near it?' Mentia added.  
  
'Interested enough to almost sacrifice our own lives.....'  
  
'.....just to get at it?' NigSek's two heads said concededly.  
  
'Interested enough to be able to lead us to it in the City of Gold?' Pengal chipped in.  
  
Siriee hovered in the air. Link saw the sky was getting darker. Great clouds were closing in on them above, very deep rumblings coming from within. A wind rustled inside the dome of the city. Siriee, in the strange voice, laughed.  
  
Oh no, Link thought- this is it.  
  
Siriee dropped to the floor, dazed. Mentia ran up to him and gently cupped him in her hands. She peered down to the tiny glowing ball, the wings twitching slightly in her hands.  
  
'He took my body...... at Stokitle Village..... I was possessed.' He mumbled.  
  
'Who took your body?' Mentia hissed to him.  
  
'Death.... He was in my body all of this time!' He said as strongly as he could. He then collapsed, unconscious.   
  
Link was horrified. When Siriee was frozen by Death's appearance- it wasn't by fear, he was being possessed by him. All of this time, Death had been traveling with them all of this time. He knew their characters, their journeys, and their plans. Worst of all, they had led him to the Triforce segment.  
  
The ground shook. Lightning struck wildly above their heads. The wind flurried in a great blizzard, chilling to their bones. A crack of lightning struck down at the dome and branched out over the shield, hitting trees and bushes on all sides of the dome. The CLASH of lightning as it struck deafened them.  
  
A figure, dressed in a black cape, eerily rose out of the ground. The base of the robe flew out madly in all directions with the wind as it floated further and further up into the air. Another lightning bolt struck down on the dome and branched outwards from it.  
  
The caped figure crouched in the air. Two gauntlet laden hands reached out of it, with the fingers of each one ending in a gnarled claw. The hands grabbed the edges of the cape and flung them back. Death appeared to them, in full horror.   
  
History seemed to have dubbed Death as a hooded skeleton, but this incarnation was a more twisted creature of darkness. It looked like a haggard, blotted, gnarled, hideously transformed Hylian human, but having a face like a vulture. Two lower teeth poked out menacingly from its bottom jaw, sticking up further than even the upper jaw reached. Its neck craned forward, skinny and wrinkled, the sickly dark- fleshed color of his neck bumpy and hung loosely. He had polished armor on his front, and a huge anvil- shaped addition to the back of his set- up. He had large black shoulder pads, his arms almost attached to them like sockets. The rest of his body was zombified, wasted away to a mere shriveled corpse. He arched forward to them, hissing.  
  
I HAVE BEEN WATCHING YOU, a voice said out loud, without character. Apparently it came from Death, but his lips didn't move. In fact, he had no tongue to say anything with. I WATCHED AS THE OTHER ANGELS WERE SENT BACK TO WHERE THEY BELONGED- IN THE MINDS OF HUMANS AROUND THE WORLD. He straightened up to watch the other pull weapons out. BUT I AM DIFFERENT. I CANNOT BE KILLED, ELSE YOUR VERY EXISTENCE WILL BE SACRIFICED.  
  
'You are not Death!' Link shouted. 'You are tainted by Evil, and have become an evil being. You must be destroyed.'  
  
His twisted face managed to hint as much of a sneer as he could. He wheezed. OH, BUT I AM DEATH, he continued. I AM THE PART OF DEATH PEOPLE BELIEVE IN THE MOST, SO I AM THE STRONGEST FORM. I AM THE EXISTING FORM, AND THE ONLY FORM. I, AM, DEATH. The angel in front of them reached for his mouth. He yanked a curled tooth from the side of his mouth, holding it in his hand. No blood at all dripped. I WILL GAIN ALL POWER. MY FAMILIAR WILL SEE TO THAT!  
  
With that, he furiously threw the tooth at the ground with such force that it became burrowed. When it did it sunk lower and disappeared.  
  
Link, Mentia, NigSek and Pengal all nudged closer to Death. He simply stood their, patiently waiting.  
  
The ground shook increasingly stronger. Cracks began to appear in it. Chunks of dirt spewed out from the yawning gapes in the ground. The party moved back off of the cracks, with Pengal still standing there. He unsteadily leapt back as the piece of ground he was standing on twisted vertically upwards, throwing more dirt out. They looked on, wondering what was happening.  
  
An arm reached out of the gaping hole just made there. It was incredibly muscular, white in color, and had a human- like paw. Its four fingers ended with claws, but they were shaped almost like hooves of a horse. The huge hand clenched the ground, scraping the dirt below it.  
  
Then another arm broke out of the ground, and bent down to grab the soil on the other side of the cracked ground. It was the same as the other one, hoof- like claws on the four- fingered hand. They both tensed and stiffened slowly.  
  
With one great rumble from the ground, a large mound of mud was turned up before them, flinging dirt into the air in a cloud. A long, spine- like neck reared from the ground, ending with a huge skull on the end. The skull was completely human except for being massive in size, and having pointed fangs. Two tiny two- fingered arms were curled up underneath its jaw, the fingers grasping and straightening zombie- like. The monster stared at them with its two empty eye sockets, and roared. It sounded like the scream of a million tortured souls, drowned out by a single loud growl from Satan himself. His eyes glowed red.  
  
Zombie Dragon of the Dead, Stalvagia.  
  
Without waiting for what Stalvagia was to do next, Link ran for the great beast, and sliced at his neck. Splinters of bone and tendons sprayed from the gash, and the Skull head wrenched back in pain. But as Link stepped away, he couldn't see the mark he made in its neck- it looked unscathed. How could that be?  
  
Mentia lanced her whip backwards and flicked it at Stalvagia's bulging head. The moment it touched, though, it disappeared completely. Mentia's whip was gone from her hands, to her surprise. She reached back to pull out her knuckle knife, but found that had disappeared too. Why?  
  
Stalvagia heaved and pulled the rest of his body out of the crumbling ground. Two more legs came out, and so did the body. It had a black, dull bumpy shell, laying low on the ground. His long, thin tail snaked out of the ground and inelegantly curled around its bulbous body. Death simply stood there, watching the fight.  
  
Stalvagia's two tiny arms began to weave something. The tiny black light, which seemed to glow darkness and make the surroundings darker, grew larger as the arms twirled round each other.  
  
'Everyone- run! Don't stand still!' Link shouted to the others.  
  
As he said that, Stalvagia's mouth sucked in the little black light, and blew. A long black jet of fire gushed out of his mouth, flame- throwing the ground beneath him. As his head turned to follow the running people the black fire curved around, and torched the ground in a circle around the dragon.   
  
As the fire faded away Pengal rushed for the dragon, clenching his spear. He lunged at the nearest foot to him, massive in size compared to the little man. As his spear touched the foot, Pengal wrenched back. His spear had disappeared, too!  
  
'Why is all our stuff gone?' He shouted out aloud.  
  
NO MORTAL WEAPON CAN HARM MY FAMILIAR, Death's voice rung out. YOU ARE ALL DOOMED TO FAILURE AND THE DECEASED! The figure of Death wheezed, almost laughing.  
  
But Link's sword didn't vanish when he swiped at Stalvagia's neck, and it was as mortal a weapon as the others had. Perhaps it was because of his allegiance to being the Hero of Time, or maybe something else. Either way, however, the wound had gone from his neck. And he had the only weapon!  
  
Stalvagia took a step forward. The ground shook and cracked underneath his feet. His mouth opened further, a sickly black tongue slipped out from between his sharp human teeth, and licked around his jaws, coating them with translucent slime.  
  
Now it was NigSek's turn. He leapt forward, causing the ground to rumble slightly, and swiped at the monsters neck. His arms passed through the bone, unscathed. Furiously he tried again, but without success. Stalvagia looked down at the people below, and hissed. His tail started to whip around dangerously, and slapped NigSek away from him. He landed with a shudder to the ground. Mentia and Pengal kept a clear distance from the dragon, helpless to attack it.  
  
Link tried again. He held his sword behind him, muttering ancient words of incantation. His sword glowed, and the surroundings darkened. He lashed his sword with great strength, and the waves of red whirled outwards and around his body. The fire completely severed through Stalvagia's neck near the base of his body, and the upper part of the neck and head toppled over, lifeless. The body withered around in agony.  
  
'Link, you did it!' Mentia cried. 'You killed the dragon!'  
  
But now, the head screamed. His neck wriggled back to his body, the severed tip of the bony neck pointing upwards. The body leaned down to touch the neck to the wound, where tendons appeared from both ends. They attached, expanded and solidified, and the neck became whole again. It reared up again, and roared in satisfaction at the peoples realization- Stalvagia was not that easy to slay.  
  
NigSek was charging up a fireball in this time, and exhaled it towards the monsters skeleton head. It fissured through his head and came out to the other side. It hit a wall of one of the golden buildings and coated it in flames, then faded away.  
  
Link was stumped. There was nothing they could do, it seemed. Link had practically severed the beasts neck clear off of its body, and it still functioned. And as he was the only one who could harm Stalvagia, it was all down to him. He looked over to Death, still standing there, arched forward and straining his neck outward like that of a vulture's.   
  
He took a run towards the dark angel, who immediately took a swipe at him, sending a black fireball towards him. Link fell backwards, numbness and burning passing over his body. Death remained still, eyeing Link. I HAVE SAID BEFORE THAT YOU SHALL FAIL, Death said emotionless. I AM THE ANGEL OF DEATH. I WILL SUCCEED. Meanwhile, Mentia, Pengal and NigSek were keeping Stalvagia busy. They dodged side to side as the dragon tried to whip them with his tail and to torch them with his fire breath. He took another earth- shaking step towards them. The place flashed as another bolt of lightning passed over them, across the black, starless sky.  
  
Link hastily backed away from Death, standing and watching the Hero of Time edge away from him. In a flash he slashed with his hand again and sent another fireball at him, too quick for him to move out of the way. Link was thrown back, in the path of the zombie dragon. Slowly he got onto his feet again, and stood poised for the dragon's next move.  
  
But the dragon had winced. He saw something, and his head had shot back. It was only when Link stood facing him that he continued fighting. His head lunged forward with great speed at Pengal, and snapped at him. Pengal backflipped out of harms way, landing on his feet. NigSek had flipped forward to the dragon again, with his spiked carapace facing towards Stalvagia. He passed straight through the lowered head and rolled along the ground, trembling somewhat. Stalvagia glanced down at the spiky- shelled monster before him, then slapped it fiercely with his large hand. NigSek smashed into one of the buildings, denting the wall, and flopped onto the floor.  
  
Link tried yet again. He leapt at the dragons closest leg and forced his sword point downwards into the flesh. It passed through the leg, snapping tendons and severing veins through the whole limb. Stalvagia flicked that leg forwards, sending Link flying. His sword was still stuck in the arm, and seemed to be of annoyance to the dragon. He gripped the handle of the sword in his teeth and yanked it out of the arm. He flung it outwards from the area, and landed with a clatter. As the sword was being pulled out they could see the wound sealing up, almost the exact reversal of what had happened when Link's sword had been plunged into it.  
  
Link's face smacked into the ground, and he felt a tooth crunch in his mouth. It was excruciating pain. As he went further forward, his backpack opened slightly, the contents beginning to spill out. Link laid there, tired and hurt. His mouth was becoming swollen from the broken tooth, and blood was dribbling onto the floor.  
  
Stalvagia's head lowered downwards to Link- and stopped. He had seen something again, and the bony skeleton face contracted to almost a worried expression. He shied away, screaming.   
  
'Link! Get up!' Mentia called to him. He slowly raised his chest off of the ground, dribbling a few more drops of blood. He stayed there, panting out of breath, then pulled his leg underneath him to lift himself further. His back was still facing the nervous dragon.  
  
'Why is the dragon waiting?' Pengal asked.   
  
'He's seen something, on Link's bag.' Mentia replied.  
  
NigSek, after slowly getting up from hitting the wall, walked over to the party. 'Or it's something he knows is IN Link's bag.' He reasoned.  
  
Link thought, then remembered. There were only rations in his bag, as well as the compass, an old map of Hyrule, and.........  
  
Link turned around, and the dragon leered forward, then back again as Link took off his backpack and bought it in front of him. He opened it and searched through the inside of it. He pulled out the hammer, and it glowed blue. The dragon screamed louder, blinded by the object in his hand.  
  
'The weapons!' Link exclaimed. 'That's what the weapons I've been picking up are for! For the final battle against Death!' He handed the hammer to Pengal. It expanded in his hands to a reasonable size for him, and flashed. Stalvagia stared at Pengal's hammer.  
  
Then Link handed the claws to Mentia, who picked them up in her hands. They disappeared and appeared, attached to Mentia's hands. They too, flashed. Stalvagia eyed both of them with their weapons.  
  
Finally, Link pulled out the helmet, and gave it to NigSek. It attached itself to his wide head, over his orange hair, and flashed. Stalvagia was now backing away from them all, watching the three armed people carefully.  
  
Link remembered his sword was gone. 'Mentia, where's my sword?'. He pointed to a dark corner of the grassy area, where it had landed in the shadows. He ran over to it and picked it up in his right hand. He chucked it over to his left hand, then turned to Stalvagia.  
  
The other three stepped closer to the dragon, which backed further away from them. His head was shaking, and he was wincing constantly. Death still stayed motionless, unmoved by the action happening.   
  
Siriee, who had been lying near the Triforce Segment, recovered slightly more, and flew over to Link. He hovered near his ear. 'Link- you have found out the monsters weakness- but there is more to know about it.' He whispered something in Link's ear, and he nodded.   
  
The others ran to Stalvagia, brandishing their weapons. Pengal whirled his hammer around his head, Mentia clinked her claws together, and NigSek kept his head lowered, showing the curved horns on his head. Stalvagia curled his tail around to try and whip them, and Mentia sliced cleanly through his tail. The wriggling end of the tail fell to the floor, twitching and bloodless. It slid over to the dragons wounded tail and reattached itself to it. It became whole again, and as Stalvagia noticed this, it became more confident. It leaned slightly forward, but keeping his head away from them.   
  
Link arrived. 'Everyone! Aim for Stalvagia's head! It's his only weak spot!' He shouted to everyone. Big mistake, for now Stalvagia kept his head clear away from everyone. He held it as high and as far back as he could, still watching them warily.  
  
'Now what?' She asked Link, annoyed. 'We can't reach it!'  
  
Then Link had an idea. 'Distract the creature. I'll solve the problem.' He stared up at his massive, bare- skulled face, contrasting with the deeply black clouds still overhead. Lightning was still relentlessly trying to purge through the shield of the dome, spreading out above them like a spider's web. It was incredibly windy inside the dome now, as dust was swirling around them all with great force, and chilling the air uncomfortably.  
  
Mentia, NigSek and Pengal spread out, circling Stalvagia. His head twitched around to watch them either side of him. He hissed at NigSek to the right of him, who jumped up closer with his helmet in view. The dragon's head jerked back to avoid being impaled by the monster's horns.  
  
Link had crept underneath him unaware, and charged his sword up again. The dragon did not notice Link as he flashed his sword at his neck, chopping it apart again. His head landed with a rumble to the ground.  
  
'Now everyone- hit the head!' called Link. They all ran to the hissing head on the ground, watching Pengal run up to him first. He swung his hammer down onto the skull, and hit it squarely on. The head flashed red, the power of the hammer surging into his face. He tried again, and the face flashed red again.  
  
Mentia arrived and slashed at the tiny swaying arms underneath his chin. They passed through them, and she made the head flash red as well. Finally NigSek charged into Stalvagia's head with his horns pointing outwards. It broke into the head, and it flashed red again, even little splinters of bone cracking out. The skull was smashed where he had hit it.  
  
But now the body had aligned itself onto the neck, and the tendons were appearing between them again. They were slowly attaching again. They were running out of time, and it wouldn't be so fooled second time round. Link ran up to the joining wound, and began to hack away at the joining body parts. But they were growing quicker and quicker with every slash he took at them. There was no way he could stop it altogether. And if they don't kill him now, he might not be killed at all.  
  
Then, all three of them hit the monster's head at once.   
  
A flash of light, and Stalvagia's head was screaming, with all the screams of the undead. His neck lashed around furiously, and the eyes glowed madly red. His black tongue slithered out of his mouth and waved about, whirling slime around the place. The head then started to degenerate, tiny bits of it flaking off its head and onto the floor. Tendons popped out of segments in its spiny neck, spurting black fluid everywhere. Rotting away rapidly, the neck and the head sunk down into the ground, gone forever.  
  
The body, still all this time, leapt towards the ground. With one long moaning noise it burrowed into the ground, the legs churning up large tufts of soil into the air. Eventually it had gone completely under, the tail slithering downwards with it. Then the ground sealed up, and with a boom, it became whole again.  
  
But Death calmly walked up towards the Triforce Segment. Everyone's attention turned to him, as he approached the Segment of the Triforce hovering over the pit.  
  
'Where's the glass covering gone?' Mentia murmured.  
  
Death laughed in a wheezing, old man manner. YOU HAVE OPENED THE SEAL OF THE SEGMENT, MERELY BY THE USE OF YOUR OWN WEAPONS. THEIR POWER FROM WAR, FAMINE AND PESTILENCE WERE ENOUGH TO ELIMINATE THE COVER OF THE SEGMENT ALONG WITH A TINY PORTION OF MY POWER. THIS LAND IS DEAD ALREADY, FROM YOUR BETRAYAL AND LIES. I WILL FULFILL! He turned around to face the Segment, glowing with the power of the three goddesses. Death crouched, ready to jump.  
  
Pengal ran to him, whirling his hammer. Death stared at him as he rushed forward, his sunken eyes glinting. A faint image of his face flew screaming towards Pengal's face, and froze him to the spot. He stayed there motionless, his hammer held behind his head.  
  
'Pengal!' Link cried. But there was nothing he could do about it, for he was already gone. Death sneered at them again.   
  
NigSek leapt forward at Death, all four arms held outwards and slashing downwards. Death held his hand out at the monster, and he stopped falling. NigSek blinked with surprise, looking around him. Then, with a flick of his wrist, Death sent NigSek hurtling towards a building. The tower shattered, and it crumbled all over him, burying him.  
  
Mentia, after seeing the other two fail, ran towards Death as well. She unsheathed her claws, bearing them to the angel. Death, once again looked at Mentia without fear, watching her run up to him. He raised a crooked hand and clicked his fingers, watching her.  
  
Then she stumbled. She bent down onto the floor, coughing and straining, feeling great pain in her stomach. She breathed heavily as she held her head down.  
  
The Link watched in utter dismay. Mentia was slowly shrinking. Her hair was dropping out of her head, falling to the floor in clumps. Her clothing became tattered and worn. Her pale skin shriveled and became blotchy and warty. Her arms had thinned, and were now bony and limp. Her slim and supple body was becoming crooked and bent, turning her once beautiful looks into nothing more than a zombie.  
  
Link ran up to her on the floor, and placed his arm around hers to lift her up. She stared up to him with a pleading look. Her head had become a bald and wrinkled skull of itself, her dull eyes sunk into her eye sockets. Her nose had shrunken to a small fleshy stub, and her teeth had fallen out of her black gums.  
  
'Mentia......... are you..... alive?' Link uttered. She was barely breathing, and was almost dead. She was limp in her cradling hands.  
  
Link looked over his shoulder to Death, through angry eyes. He gritted his teeth, his rage building up inside him. He reached for his sword as he watched the angel, mesmerized by the Triforce Segment before him, edge closer to it. Link slowly laid Mentia down on the floor, in critical condition, and faced him. He slowly stepped to him, then walked, then ran, becoming ever more and more mad. He whirled his sword around, shouting.  
  
Death wasn't paying attention to Link, as he crouched down, ready to leap the gap and become one with the Triforce Segment. He lifted off the ground. In what seemed like a lifetime, he slowly reached out for the piece, his yellow reptilian eyes opened wide. His hand almost came into contact with it, and a flash of electricity reached out and touched his extended finger, wrapping around his hand.  
  
Link pummeled into Death, pushing him away. The largest flash of lightning rained down from the sky, over the entire dome. Death was forced from the Triforce piece, and downwards towards the pit. Link rolled over to the other side of the pit and stopped. He got up quickly, looking around. Death was nowhere to be seen.  
  
KILL ME, a voice said from towards the Triforce piece.  
  
Link got up and walked up the stairs. As he neared the top, he saw some fingers, gripping the side of the pit. Link walked around the other side, away from the fingers, and looked down. He saw Death, hanging from the side of the pit.  
  
HERO OF TIME, the voice said slowly. KILL ME NOW.  
  
Link, built up from the anger from Death's actions, from Death's beliefs, from hurting his friends and maybe even killing them, ran to his hands. Screaming out in rage, he stamped hard and firmly onto his fingers.   
  
THANK YOU LINK, the voice said to him finally. The dark angel fell silently down into the pit, disappearing from sight, forever.  
  
Slowly the gale- force wind under the dome settled. The lightning stopped, and the clouds floated away from each other, with sunlight cracking through the opening gaps in the sky. The air cleared and smelled fresher than before, and Link took a deep breath of relief. For he had finally accomplished what he was in this land to do. He had ridden ISZAMI of the Angels Four, at last. The land had nothing to worry about now.  
  
He would have been so, so happy. Until he stared around him. The city had been partly demolished. Pengal was frozen like a statue, forever holding his weapon above his head. NigSek, the great beast, had been crushed under a great pile of gravel, so great that even his might couldn't withstand it. And Mentia..... the one he had known the best, the one he was closest with, the one that knew him the most, laid there, lifeless. Her death had been totally cruel, for she had rotted away into a disgusting corpse. She was a great warrior, and a beautiful woman. Link walked over to her and bent down to pick up her hand. He held it firmly and with care, even through its haggard and crooked bones and cold skin. He rested his head on her icy cool hand. He held it, for it was now, and only now, that he himself had realized how much he had loved her. He never really thought about it before, and certainly not at the very beginning where she had picked him up from out at sea. She had at many times expressed her own feelings for him, but he didn't really pay attention. Now it was too late, his heart hurt to even think about it. All he could feel now was an inner sorrow. He loved Mentia with all of his heart.  
  
Her hand grasped. Link lifted his head, and looked at the hand. It was fleshed, and elegantly soft. It was warm in his hand.  
  
He glanced at the body. He saw her head, staring at him with her red eyes, the curl of hair over her face.  
  
'Mentia!' Link exclaimed ecstatically. She smiled a deeply friendly smile back at him.  
  
They both stood up slowly, still staring into each others faces, and hugged. Link squeezed her warm body with his masculine arms, almost in tears. She hugged back too, her eyes shut tightly together.  
  
Their heads turned when they heard a shattering noise. NigSek had broken free from the rubble, standing there boldly over the stones. He saw the two look at him, and stomped over to them.  
  
Pengal jerked back into motion. He swung his hammer down onto the ground with a thud. After standing there looking at the ground, he did a double- take. 'What the hell happened?' He inquired. 'Where's Death? Why are you....' He pointed in different directions, then he huffed, flustered.  
  
'It's all over, everyone.' Link explained to everyone. 'We have defeated the Angels Four. The land of ISZAMI is free, forever.'  
  
They all huddled together, and stared to the shining Triforce Segment. The buildings reconstructed themselves before them, and the whole area surrounding the Triforce Segment brightened. The bright yellow light from the Segment gleamed in all of their eyes, and they all smiled, content and happy.  
  
'It's all over......' Link mumbled.  
  
CHAPTER 11: ABSOLUTION  
  
A small trail of smoky substance whizzed past Link. He just about glimpsed it when it vanished behind a building. Another one flew between him and Mentia, and they both shied back from the thing. Another one circled NigSek's head. They both flew into windows and out of sight.   
  
'The spirits.......'   
  
'..... have arrived.' NigSek's two heads said. Nobody noticed them split their heads apart, for they were watching the spirits.  
  
From all of the windows and buildings visible, spirits flew out, ducking and diving and weaving through pillars and archways jutting from the walls higher up. They individually stopped in the central large area, above the Triforce Segment. Masses and masses of circular spirits paused above them all, looking down onto them. They stared up in awe at the higher species above them. Their luminance filled the dome with a friendly glow, and their coy patterns across the sky were very pretty. More and more of them were surrounding the Triforce Segment high in the air. This presentation was filling Link with a great respect for the spirits above, like miniature gods and goddesses. Now they stopped flowing out of the city itself, and stayed floating up above them in their great mass. They stayed for a few minutes, with just the five members of their party (including Siriee) gawking at the beautiful spirits above.  
  
Two little spirits broke away from the ring of other spirits, and floated gently down to them. They seemed almost like Faeries, but they had no wings of any kind, and they were altogether more mysterious looking. They left tiny sprinkles of twinkling in their path across and through the air, as they slowly and carefully down closer to them.  
  
They both flew closer to NigSek. One circled and bobbed around Nigrowb's face, another around Sekapook's head. Both crossed over to the other face and floated for a while around the opposite head. As they flew away from NigSek, both heads smiled.  
  
'It can't be....' They breathed.  
  
One spirit expanded and sailed over them all, screeching like an eagle. As it flew away and circled around to them, its shape became that of a giant, white bird. It flapped its wings slowly and with prestige, before landing on the ground and cocking its crested white head back into a noble posture.  
  
The second one expanded into a haggard old woman, dressed in rags. She reminded Link for a startling moment of Mentia, when she was cursed by Death's power only a few minutes ago. She raised her head to look up to NigSek, who was looking down onto her. The bird strutted over to her side, and stood beside her, both looking at NigSek and the party.  
  
'Kee! Eda' locca!' NigSek opened all four of his arms to greet the two figures. 'You... you remembered me!'  
  
'Keeeeeeeeeeee!' The bird screeched. He obviously spoke no Hylian, but understood it well. Kee flapped his fluffy white wings, then preened his downy chest. He lifted his head up and looked at NigSek side- on.  
  
The old woman leered up to him, smiling. 'How could we forget you, you big lizard!' NigSek carefully cuddled her with two of his arms. She hugged against the smooth, hard shelled belly of the beast, then stepped away. NigSek then cuddled the great bird, who wrapped a wing around his spiked green shell. Then Kee backed away.  
  
'It's been a long time, Nigrowb and Sekapook.' Eda remarked. 'But we remembered you, and so did Kee.' She paused, and smiled a bit. 'Have you had any word from Gengaa, by any coincidence?'  
  
NigSek looked down to his clawed feet. 'Oh, you could say .........'  
  
'...... we came across him.'  
  
'I thought so. Has the little brute changed a bit over the centuries?'  
  
'He didn't even remember who I was.'  
  
'He vanished before I could remind him.' They both said.  
  
She chuckled for a second on that, before turning to the rest of the party with a serious face. The bird. Stood up straighter and faced the others, too. They had a serious matter to clear with them.  
  
'Hero of Time, you have done well. You have now defeated all of the Angels Four, the apocalyptic angels of darkness themselves. The land of ISZAMI is saved forever from them.'  
  
'Who rules over the City of Gold?' Link asked bluntly.  
  
She gestured to all of the spirits up above them. 'We all do. We have all contributed to the welfare of our City of Gold, and to the protection of the Triforce Segment, so we declared that everyone who remains in the Dome rules equally over each other. Good or Bad, strong willed or weak. Opposites of any kind before we came in, eventually we grew to be indifferent to each other.' The spirits continued to hover over them all, watching with everlasting wisdom, the wisdom which they had inherited from living so closely to an artifact of the Sacred Object.   
  
'As a token of our appreciation for what you have done for our land.' Eda continued. 'We shall celebrate this momentous occasion above Outlook Rock on this night, and on this day every year from now, in your honor. We would like to invite you as the guests of honor of the celebration.'  
  
Without consideration, they accepted the spirit's gift of appreciation with a gleeful nod from all of the heads.  
  
'Normally we do not venture out of the ISZAMI Dome, but this is an occasion we simply cannot overlook. You saved our land, and we appreciate it.'  
  
'Keeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!' The great bird screeched proudly. The long tail feathers twitched, and white dust sprinkled off of it.   
  
'This is from all of the spirits of the Dome.' Eda' locca finished. 'We are forever in your debt, Heroes of ISZAMI.' This last statement touched everyone. Their party had been recognized purely on the basis of Link, the Hero of Time. Now they were all acknowledged, with their own separate titles which they could call their own. Everyone smiled, Mentia even more so.  
  
That night, ISZAMI was silent. The whole of the land was finally in peace with itself, sleeping lazily below a starry night sky. Milky blue smudges spread across the heavens, and the stars were sprinkled across it. The moon glowed sleepily above in the sky, dull white blotched with gray patches. A comet would occasionally streak over the sky, blessing the world with more magic. The sky twinkled over the calm forests and the quiet lakes, which reflected the sky so brilliantly in an undisturbed way. Crickets chirped occasionally in the bushes. The whole place was tranquil and quiet.  
  
Except, of course, for the tall fire on top of Outlook Rock, the tallest mountain in the whole of ISZAMI. Far out in the sky it shone like a lighthouse overlooking the land, a magnet of attention in the otherwise darkened scenery. Deep in the forests, if you listened carefully, you could hear the sound of cheering and celebration.  
  
Creatures from all over the land had gathered to here, all dancing, shouting, playing and having outright fun. Circles of people danced in synchronization with each other around the tall flame, and spirits flew around the top of the top of the flickering flame, producing mesmerizing patterns in the black sky. Long shadows jumped and spread outwards across the ground over the top of the mountain, and tiny specks of ash fluttered from the fire, spread out all around. All of the dominant races of ISZAMI were there, or at least any of them that could make it. The Peezt and the Strange were mingling with each other, as they were now sworn brother- species, friendship forever. Some Strange greeted Pengal in the unusual manner so regular for their type, and he welcomed them with open arms and shaking of hands. The villagers of Stokitle came up to commemorate the occasion, led by Stokitle the third, who conferred deeply with Kee and Eda' locca. They managed to answer his long list of seemingly endless questions about anything he could think of. The other spirits darted between the people, chattering for a moment with them, before zipping off to another person. Siriee was also floating around, and a little girl Strange was chasing him around between the people.  
  
Even Gengaa and Korut were there at the party. Gengaa had been reminded of who NigSek was, and came up to him to welcome him. NigSek apologized for threatening to tear him apart when he was solid, and truthfully admitted he wouldn't have done it if they were forced to. Gengaa, after becoming solid for a few days, returned back to his smoky self, to his relief. He didn't know why he did become solid though, and neither did Mentia, even though it was her powder.  
  
Link, during the night, approached Korut. 'Look, pal.' He muttered to him. He had cleaned his grubby clothes, but he was still leaning forward and wobbling to walk around. Link stared down at the fat stumpy man before him with his arms crossed.  
  
'I'm sorry about what happened at the Tavern the other day.' He held his hand out, extending out of his sleeve and showing his hairy arm. 'Shake?' He raised half of a smile.  
  
Link, after consideration, extended his muscled arm, and shook his hand. 'Shake.' He agreed with him. After that the man waddled over to the long tables spread out with all different kinds of foods.  
  
NigSek was now kept busy with villagers cautiously avoiding him. He was shaking hands with anyone he could, often with four people at a time, to show that he was not as bad as he may seem, even after the years of terrorizing their village. Further out from the central mass of the celebration, Nektaa the dragon was entertaining people of all ages and of all species. Small children ran up to the dragon and patted her on the nose. She licked them with a sloppy red tongue, much to the amusement of the watching children. The licked child would stagger around, almost completely covered with spit. But they didn't care, for even the children knew that, in this celebration of the Heroes of ISZAMI, nothing was there to be complained about. Everyone had great fun.  
  
Link had walked away from the center party, and stared out over the mountain, at the forests and the lakes and the mountains, up to the great City of Gold in the distance. He watched as the ambiance from the bright orange fire lit up a few of the closer trees, stones and forests at the foot of the mountain. He looked at everything he could, over everything he had seen, and everywhere he had traveled.  
  
'Link...?'  
  
He looked over his shoulder and saw Mentia, watching him from behind his back. She slowly and elegantly stepped towards him. Her shadow lengthened and reached far over the edge of the mountain, making a faint silhouette on the trees in the distance. She stood beside him, and they both watched as another comet flew overhead in the deep blue- black, starry sky.  
  
'It was this same sight I saw, a week ago.' Link sighed. 'I looked upon it, and I thought to myself, 'What will I be doing, far away from Hyrule? with only this girl to accompany me? This member of royalty, who I only met and really talked with the previous morning?'  
  
'Mmm.' Mentia agreed. They both watched the sky more, gazing onto the twinkling stars.  
  
'And I asked you.' Mentia reminisced. 'Whether you thought Zelda was pretty?' She laughed weakly, and so did Link.  
  
'Now I know why you asked me that question.' Link looked into Mentia's eyes, and she pulled back the lock of gold hair which forever adorned her face. It bounced right back into position. 'But, I am not a romantic normally, so I kept quiet.'  
  
' I was like that, too.' She turned away. 'Twenty years of living in an army, the only men around were interested in killing and winning battles. Love was denied to me most of my life. Even the love for my mother, which she never returned back to me, whatever I gave her.' She looked back onto Link's kind face. 'With you, I experienced friendships, and love. You were the first man in my life who even took notice in my feelings. You cared, and you loved.'   
  
Link snickered slightly. 'So we were both in as awkward a position as the other- we had not truly experienced someone we could really love, until now.' He dwelled on the past for a minute. 'One woman in my life was my own sister incidentally, and the other was a mere illusion, a memory in the eyes of a sleeper.'  
  
'But we are both very, very real.' They had moved closer together without realizing, and weren't stopping. Mentia turned again. 'But our lands are miles apart, and we have no idea where the other is. After this, we can never see each other again.' Her eyes went watery yet again. 'We both love each other, but we cannot proceed. We are doomed to an unfulfilled fondness for each other.'  
  
Unfortunately Link knew this was all true. It hurt him gravely, as much as he didn't want it to be true.  
  
She looked into his face, getting closer. 'Well, we might as well, leave ourselves with a memory......'  
  
'Yes.' Link agreed. Before he could say anything else, they kissed. A romantic, tingling sensation progressed through his body and his mouth as they stood there, beyond the others, in blissful heaven. He held his hands softly around her curved hips, and she caressed his body in her arms. It was the most wonderful feeling Link had ever experienced in his life, and it lasted for an eternity to him.  
  
NigSek was walking towards them, waving at them to tell them something, then paused as he saw them both together. Pengal was following him from behind.  
  
NigSek spun around and walked slowly away. 'Let them be, for they deserve the peace.' He whispered to Pengal. Pengal winked to him, nudging NigSek's chest with his elbow. 'I get their game.' Pengal hinted back.  
  
After Link and Mentia broke away from their romantic occasion, NigSek ran back up to them. He told them to return back to the party immediately, for the spirits had some things to announce. They walked back to the fire, hands held in unison, and watched as the spirits condensed into a large group again. All of the races of the land that was up on that mountain backed away from them, lining around in a wide circle. A large gap in the line let the five Heroes of ISZAMI walk in line to the tall fire in the center of the mountain overlook.  
  
'Heroes of ISZAMI' Eda' locca's voice hollowed out to them. A spirit flew down to the ground, and the glowing expanded. Eda's haggard face appeared in the glowing, like an image. It glared at the five in order. 'In addition to the celebration we shall hold on this night, every year from now forth, we have also decided to grant you individual gifts.'   
  
She hovered over to NigSek first. 'Nigrowb and Sekapook.' She addressed the two parts of his personality, which seemed odd. To compensate he split his head to the two parts. 'We understand fully the pain you have endeared over the last six centuries. Yet we had no choice but to put you in that position. You see, if we had place an evil entity in your position, like Gengaa, their evil ambitions would have grown too ambitious. That person might have invaded the village itself and destroyed it, greedily wielding their great power to wreak havoc. You, however, have been ever loyal to your cause. You had eaten people, but only the ones which came near your cave. And you never proceeded to inflict any more harm that was necessary, even though you had the means to do so, with your monstrous body and your....... Possession.' She was careful not to mention the healing spring, lest people from Stokitle Village use it selfishly and wastefully if they knew of its existence  
  
She hovered over to Gengaa, who was surprised. 'You, similarly, have fulfilled your own end of the bargain, in a different manner. You took pleasure in torturing the minds of people that entered the Temple of Knowledge, but you only did so- you never intended to depict harm on outside the caves. And you kept the source of Knowledge guarded from all but the Hero of Time. You have also suffered from doing something against your own will.'  
  
She floated back to before the five Heroes of ISZAMI. 'So we shall reward you for both of your dedications. From this day forward... you shall join us in the ISZAMI Dome, where you deserved to belong all of this time.' All three faces smiled brightly. Their time had finally come for them to be where they belonged.  
  
Next, Eda floated to Pengal. 'You, Pengal of the Strange, have had your wish fulfilled. You have joined allegiance with the Peezt of the desert, strengthening both of your cultures. The technology in both villages will improve because of this join. We can think of no other way you would wish of payment.' Pengal accepted this. His kind will no longer live with primitive agriculture and tools, and their kind will be on the road to a more advanced life. He had what he wanted.  
  
She next floated over to Mentia. 'Mentia of Kench, we will tell you of what is, at this moment happening in Kench. Your mother, the old Queen of the Kenchre, is in converse agreement with the temporary ruler of the rebellious villagers. After time they will strike agreement, and rule the land together. It will be in peace after years of war.'  
  
'Thank you, Eda.' Mentia said. She had what she came here for, and was fulfilled.  
  
Eda next came to Siriee, floating level with her face. 'Siriee, we can easily grant you your wish.' With that, she blew onto the Faerie, who blinked. Immediately he jumped up higher in the air, glowing brightly.  
  
'I remember!' Siriee cried. 'I remember everything! My memory is back!' He zipped around the whole perimeter of the party, then back in front of Eda. 'Thank you, oh great Spirit!' He zipped up to her and landed on her face. He seemed to hug her, the best he could at his size.   
  
Finally the spirit flew over to Link. 'And, The Hero of Time, Link of Hyrule. You have lead your party of fine fighters to victory against the Angels Four, but you have also woken the Wind Fish of the illusion Koholint Island. And, like your generation of family before you, have defeated Ganondorf Dragmire, also known as Ganon, King of the Thieves, countless times in your home land. As such, we can reward you in two ways.' Six spirits floated down beside Eda, awaiting for something.   
  
'The first, unfortunately, we cannot reveal to you just yet. But only to say, that you will have your fondest memories revived and to become reality.' She floated back to the other six spirits. 'The second thing we can grant you, is safe passage home, to Hyrule.' The spirits behind her flew over to the fire, and circled it. They speeded up, and raised higher. Faster and faster they spun, until they became nothing more than a blurry ring around the towering flame.  
  
They floated to the base of the fire, and it turned blue. Everyone gasped as the whole mountaintop was now adorned by a blue ambiance, which replaced the warm orange glow. The flickering flame looked mysterious, and twinkled in Link's eyes.  
  
He smiled, then went sad. He had remembered that, if he was to go home now, he would have to say goodbye to everyone now as well. He sighed as he looked to everyone else aligned to him. They all had solemn looks on their faces, for they knew what Link knew was true. This was going to be goodbye, to everyone, to ISZAMI.  
  
He walked to Pengal. 'Goodbye, Pengal.' He shook his hand, now matching his crushing grasp of his hand. Pengal smiled. 'At first your kind confused me, for you lived up to your title of the Strange.'  
  
'Same here, mate.' He choked.  
  
'But you were no different to us at all. You were loyal, and friendly, perhaps not overly smart.' They both laughed heartily at this. 'But in the end, you are as human as the rest of us.'   
  
Nektaa whined, standing behind Pengal. He looked up to the friendly dragon, and patted her on the snout. She nudged Link in the side of his body, tickling him. He smiled. 'I'll miss you too, Nektaa.' The dragon snorted back with agreement. He looked down onto him with her big, bulging eye.  
  
Link walked up to Nigrowb and Sekapook. Immediately the heads sealed back together again, looking down onto Link, with almost crocodile tears. 'NigSek, the huge monster with the huge heart.' He crossed his arms, palms outstretched. NigSek took both hands and shook them, smiling. The other two hands patted Link on his shoulders, gently so as not to send him flying. 'You are another one of our party who was an oddity, if I say so. But you again showed your true self, to be a gentle creature.'   
  
NigSek sniffed through his nostrils. 'When I go into the Dome, I'll be where I wanted to be- but I'll be without my friends.'  
  
'That's okay.' Link justified with him. 'There will be many, many people in the Dome. You will meet great friends in there.'  
  
'But..... I'll remember you three, always.'  
  
'And me!' Siriee piped up.  
  
NigSek smiled. 'And you too, Faerie.'  
  
Link came to Mentia. They didn't say anything, for they had said all they had beforehand. There was nothing either of them had to add to their consolidations. They simply stared at each other.  
  
Mentia pecked Link quickly on his lips, then went back again. 'Well...... this is.... Goodbye, then.' She was crying solidly now, making her choked and causing larger reflections in her eyes for all of the salty tears.  
  
'Yes....' Link said sadly. Had he been less manly he would have cried, but he was a Hero. He wasn't meant to cry. Instead, he felt a guttening sadness deep within himself. He walked slowly to the flame.  
  
Siriee hovered over to Link. 'Well?' The little Faerie asked. 'Are we ready?'  
  
Link sighed. 'Yes. We are, now.' He walked closer to the flame, to the point where all he could see flashes of blue and white, set on a black background.  
  
He turned around, took one last fleeting look at the four people standing there, and waved. The others all waved back to him.  
  
Then everyone gasped.  
  
Link turned around, and saw the fire flickering madly. The six spirits whizzing around flew out in all directions, landing on the floor. Everyone, including the Heroes of ISZAMI and Link, backed away from the flame.  
  
'What happened?' Eda asked a spirit, one of those flying around.  
  
'I don't know.' It hummed back to her, dazed. 'We just felt something, and-'  
  
The blue flame spread outwards from the fire, further and further out, off of the mountain, down into ISZAMI. Where the flame touched, the land became charred and barren. Trees were engulfed, lakes dried, and mountains were eroded. The Dome itself darkened over, filling up with black smoggy cloud.  
  
The spirits dropped out of the air, landing as small pebbles. Everyone watched in horror as Eda herself became nothing more than a small rock.  
  
Then, without warning, the Peezt, the Strange and the villagers were squirming around in agony. The five heroes watched aghast as, one by one, they turned brown, their bodies swelled up, and they shrunk into stones surrounding the fire. All around them was a decorative ring of pebbles and stones.  
  
Then Pengal felt a pain in his stomach, followed by NigSek, then Mentia. They gritted their teeth and clenched their stomachs, and crouched down. Their skin was becoming hard. Pengal's body swelled into a stone shape, then NigSek's body became nothing more than a giant boulder. Mentia was still intact.  
  
Link ran to her, grabbing her arm. 'Mentia- fight it!' He felt normal, and didn't experience anything like the others were.  
  
But already she was changing. Her soft white skin began to turn browner, her slim curved body was beginning to bulge. Her face, through her shut eyes, was turning angular. 'I...... can't........ do it.' She exerted to say. Her teeth were rounding into brown pebbles, her hair becoming more angular as well. She stared to Link- and he saw her eyes becoming duller.  
  
'Yes you can!' Link urged her to keep fighting. But it was no use. She was merely slowing down the process of the metamorphosis. He stepped back to see Mentia's whole body was now dirt brown, and her slim legs were fattening out. She was shrinking and rounding off. Eventually, her face faded away from her head, and her head was forced in to her body, which became a large boulder. Link now stared down to the stone before him, and all of the other stones around him. There was even an stone archway set in a line behind him, which was probably Nektaa. What was left of Nektaa.  
  
'Link. What's happening?' Siriee cried. To Link's slight comfort, someone else was with him. But this was far from relaxing for him. In fact, it had turned into his worst nightmare, and the nightmare of everyone in the whole land. It was ISZAMI's destruction. This, was Absolution.  
  
Which means......  
  
The fire stopped flickering, then exploded in flames. A black figure had been thrown out of the explosion, and landed down onto the ground. The sky had gone red as all this was happening, and the land became hotter. Link broke out into a sweat.  
  
Then he watched, in utter shock, as Death's wing unraveled from around his body.  
  
DEATH.  
  
His skin had completely gone. He was a skeletal figure, occasional tendons hanging from arm and limb sockets all over his body. The wings were leathery and deep black, sprouting from holes in his shoulder pads. His armor had all but shattered, and his skull was cracked all over. He screamed diabolically at Link, unable to move from the horrible figure before him.   
  
THANK YOU FOR FREEING MY MORTAL SELF FROM MORTAL BOUNDARIES, a sharper and more piercing voice rung out. I AM FREE. THE OTHER ANGELS, AS I SAID, RETURNED TO THE MINDS OF HUMANS. BUT I BELONG IN NO HUMAN HEAD. I EXIST BEFORE HUMANS, AND AFTER THEM. I HELPED CREATE THEM, AND I MYSELF WILL DESTROY THEM!  
  
'My friends!' Link shouted to the cruel angel. 'This fight is between us, Death!'   
  
He hissed at the two. YES. THAT IS WHY I HAVE REMOVED THEM, PERMANENTLY. EVEN IF YOU WERE TO WIN, THEY WILL NEVER COME BACK. He flapped his clammy, leather wings, and he lifted into the air. THEIR SOULS NOW SUFFER ETERNALLY, AND SO WILL YOURS. With that, Death dive- bombed, screaming blood for Link, his hands outstretched.  
  
Link leapt for the side and watched Death whiz past him. He hit the ground, flipped over, and twisted in the air, facing Link. His wings curled downwards to the ground, and Death screeched up into the blood- red sky. As he did, jets of fire burst out of the ground all over the mountain, shaking it tremendously. He paced towards Link, flapping his wings.  
  
Link unbuckled his shield and pulled out his sword. Siriee floated to Death and hovered around his head, then back again. 'Link, I have no idea what his weak spot is.' To make up for his lack of help Siriee tried to analyze the angel. But it was in vain, so it seemed.  
  
Death loomed ever- closer to them, his hands glowing black. Another jet of deep- red fire jetted out from behind him, spraying forth a great heat wave of evil which surrounded him. He looked at Link with pure black, unsettling eye sockets, his wings curled beside him.  
  
Link rushed to him with his shield up, and was met by Death lashing at him with the back of his hand. A black stain gashed the decorations on his royal Hylian shield, and forced Link to stumble backwards. Link could really feel the heat surrounding Death, and it stung his skin.  
  
Then Link tried again. He jumped to Death, jabbing his sword at the angel. It hit Death on his arm, and the injury glowed. But as Link pulled his sword out, the tip of the sword was covered with a sickly white substance. The stringing part attached to his arm snapped and curled around itself, settling into the white blob that appeared on Death's arm.  
  
The blob then magically transformed. It lengthened, hardened and solidified, and another bony arm was sticking outwards at right angles from the arm.  
  
Death wheezed at him. MY ESSENCE IS PAIN, he continued. HURT ME AND I GROW, EVER MORE. He smacked Link on his shoulder, and he fell side- on into a small stone. He gritted his teeth as he looked down at his shoulder and saw great gaping wounds scratched across his arm.  
  
With a flap of his wings, Death flew higher into the sky. He kept himself steady in mid- air, watching Link get back up onto his feet. Death's new arm, being only partly functional, simply clenched its fist and unclenched, and seemed to be of not much use for anything else. But it was a horrible sight, seeing a third arm reach out from Death's body. Death's ever- more twisted, evil body.  
  
Death curled up his body, still flapping his wings to keep himself in the air. He clenched into a little ball, then stretched far outwards. Black stars flew from him, and showered the ground around him. Each star touched the ground and exploded, churning up the hot dust from the ground. Some had landed onto the small stones of the circle, and they smashed into tiny pieces.  
  
Link jumped to avoid a star coming towards him, and in the process was thrown back by the explosion of another star that detonated on the ground beside him. Again he was thrown back, and landed on the ground face- up. He quickly scrambled onto his feet again, only to find Death plunging for him again, screaming like a hell-bent siren.  
  
Link, unprepared for this, was thrown back. Death grabbed onto Link by the arms, scraping him along the ground across the top of the mountain. He was slightly embedded into the ground, and a dirt outline appeared around his body. But he was more worried about Death, who was above him and glaring down onto him. A tendon was all that kept his two jaws together as his mouth opened widely, breathing a black cloudy substance onto Link's face. The third arm limply waved about, clawing at Link.  
  
With his feet Link kicked Death over to behind him and leapt onto his feet. As Death flipped over and faced Link again, Link charged at him, wielding his sword. Death outstretched his wings, preparing to fly off.  
  
Link caught him on the bony clawed leg as he raised into the air. Where his sword came into contact again it flashed, and the white substance frothed out of the bones in his leg. The frothing substance quickly molded into a bony foot, sticking out of Death's shin. He flew higher into the air, looking more and more terrifying.  
  
Siriee flew in front of Link. 'Don't you see, Link?' He hollowed out. 'Death thrives on body wounds- he grows with every impact you make onto his body!' He flew around Death again, zipping around his head.  
  
Death screeched at the Faerie, who fell further down to the ground. He was stunned, and backed away to Link. Where Death flew over the ground, more bursts of red fire spewed forth from the ground, raising the heat ever more to uncomfortable rates.  
  
The angel turned in mid air, eyeing Link. He held his hand back, shining with a black glow. With one swift move Death threw a dark fireball at Link. It hurtled down to him with a screaming piercing noise.  
  
Link held his Shield up on basic reactions, and the fireball hit the shield with great impact. The shiny covering of the Shield reflected the fireball back to Death, who simply kept still in the air, flapping his satanic bat- like wings.  
  
It exploded onto Death, who reached for his face and squealed in agony. He fell slowly closer to the ground. With fury Link ran again for the falling angel, preparing to meet with him as he touched the ground.  
  
But as Death came closer to him, Link stared at his chest. It had become white and gooey, and the substance of it was solidifying, pointing outwards from his body. When they formed, two withered, scrawny skeletal arms were reaching out to Link from his chest. He had grown again, and was becoming more of a monster than ever before.  
  
Link was distraught, now. The land was in ruins, jets of flame randomly spewing outwards and tearing up the once beautiful country. His friends, and the people who lived here, now laid around him as tiny pebbles, no different from the other regular bits of rubble that littered the mountain top. Everybody had died, the land had died. Only him, the Faerie, and the dark angel before him, were left fighting. He was doomed, for only he was fighting for good, to save an already deceased land, from Death himself, who grew stronger and more warped from every blow Link made onto him, while he was left to freely hurt the Hero of Time. With that and other frustrating thoughts in his mind, Link furiously and relentlessly attacked at the being before him. He lunged onto the screaming angel, placing blow after blow after blow onto his body, smashing whatever armor he had on, striking at any outstretched limb he could, hacking at his death black wings, and even scored a direct downward slash onto Death's head.  
  
But this was all in utter rage that he did this, and Death was benefiting from it. As Link relaxed more, he looked onto the angel, which had now grown monstrously more hideous. Arms and legs were wriggling and waving over his body, outwards for Link. They lined the bony supports of his wings, and all over his body was a mass of haggard, clawed hands. The strike to his head had shifted his faced to a smudged look, and another skeletal eye peered at him from the wide crack in his skull. Death hissed again, and now so did the other face. It was a terrible noise that rung around the mountaintop, along with all of the explosion noises from the jetting steams of fire which were tearing up the landscape. Death's original arms couldn't even move properly, for all of the other limbs that restrained movement. Nevertheless, he managed barely to strike a clawed scrape at Link's uncovered chest. Link staggered back, the gash wounds over his body hurting now, and being stung by the appearance of sulphur in the air. It bitterly hurt his wounds, and he had to crouch down to stop it from hurting.  
  
Death screamed at Link, waving arms around and flapping his wings. Link did not know what to do, for everything he did just made him more evil and disgusting. He was merely feasting on the damage inflicted onto him. It was sensible, really, for Death was the very epitome of all that caused elimination of souls. This was giving him great power, and in this now dead land, with the King of dark angels before him, Link sighed, without hope. For nothing was alive in this land- only Death flourished.  
  
Then, Link's eyes brightened with an idea. Death was one of the opposite spirits of the cosmos, and was balanced by Life. Here, Death was in overabundance, and that had to be counteracted. Death needed Life to be defeated. He had to create Life, somehow.  
  
Death ran for Link with wings opened wide, making him look intimidating. All of his arms and hands were outstretched to Link, and he was screaming blue murder, ready to make the kill.  
  
With little time, Link bent down, and poked a hole into the soil with his finger. As he was doing this, Death's face stretched forward, lengthening the eye sockets on his skull. He was glowing black, amassing power.  
  
Link hurriedly reached into his pocket, holding something in his hand. He opened his palm, and the seed that Stokitle gave to him at the start of his journey, fell down into the hole. It didn't even land with any sort of impact, as indifferent as the stones and pebbles around it.  
  
'Link, what are you doing?' Siriee uttered, afraid.  
  
But as soon as it touched the ground, Death halted. He looked to the hole in the ground with shock. His eye sockets bulged. His arms and wings froze momentarily from their wriggling.  
  
For the tiny seed, which Link covered quickly over, sprouted. A tiny stem poked out of the ground, and a leaf sprouted from it. It was bright green, and fresh and young from the ground.  
  
NO! Death's voice rang out.  
  
Link stood up, looking at the tiny, insignificant stem, then stared up to Death. He took a step back from the plant.  
  
'You, foul angel.' Link mouthed. 'The cause of Death and destruction for this innocent land. You who should deem it worthy of annihilation. You who should think of torturing the inhibitors with infinite pain from beyond their own mortal coils and the grave.' Link took a step forward, over the plant, towards Death. The angel stepped back, looking at Link's face. His eyes were glowing white as he spoke. 'You who flourished on evil. You are nothing compared to this tiny sprig of life.' He quickly pointed to the tiny sap, still growing.   
  
'There is no darkness shrouding within a rotten room that cannot be removed by a single flickering flame from the candlelight. That light, tremendously undersized by the blackness of dark, can banish it by its mere existence. There is no destruction that cannot be repaired by the single, brief shaking of hands in peace. There is no desecration that cannot be cured by the appearance of a tiny sprout of a plant'  
  
THAT IS A MERE STEM! Death screeched, nervous. IT CANNOT STOP ME!  
  
'A single stem, a tiny plant, a simple seed. A seed that blossoms, within time, to a magnificent oak tree. A peace treaty, that within time can become a utopian community. A seed that inspired humans and the like, from the very beginning, with hope and destiny. That their kinds will live in great cities from tiny huts, and to hold great knowledge from scraps of paper, and to be freed, from the start of constrained life. No, Death, this seed is everything that can stop you.' Link was using the last of his inherited knowledge to help now, and it was in good use. Death was cowering, his face stretched to a look of horror.  
  
I AM AN IMMORTAL BEING! MY VERY EXISTENCE IS NEEDED TO KEEP THE UNIVERSE ALIVE! ELIMINATE ME, AND YOU ELIMINATE EVERYTHING!  
  
'This seed is the meaning of Life entirely, vastly enough to remove mistakes like yours from very existence. This seed is Life, your own Death. You, are finished.'  
  
Death held his twisted head in all of his gnarled hands, screaming for mercy. He, the very essence of Death itself, was slowly losing his own life. He crouched downwards, further down. His outstretched wings were curling around him. YOU!! Death pointed at Link, with a gnarled finger. The earth trembled as he spoke the very word. ALL OF EVIL SHALL PURGE YOUR FAMILY AND DESCENDANTS FOR ETERNITY, AND BEYOND!!  
  
'Bring them on.' Link replied to that. 'I am the Hero of Time.'  
  
Death screamed and swayed in the air. In the cracks over his bony body shone light, beaming out like rays of sunlight breaking through the clouds after a storm. The dark angel of the apocalyptic Angels Four was deteriorating. His screaming raised in pitch, expanded to the voice of a hundred screeching demons, ringing around the top of the mountain. The spurting jets of flame from the ground had gone, and the red sky turned black.   
  
Then, the world brightened. Link vaguely saw, through the brightness, Death's twisted body becoming a silhouette floating upwards with the light. The shadow of him broke up into tiny streaks which went higher up into the sky, up beyond where Link was not able to stare up to, lest he be blinded.  
  
Then, slowly, the light diminished. A white spirit appeared before him. Everything was deep blue, and didn't move. No wind, no heat, nothing. They seemed to be in this world, yet apart from it, in a parallel state of it. In a mirror image of it. Link looked up to see if Siriee was still there. He was, thankfully, with him. He brightened to assure him. Then he looked at the spirit.  
  
It was a small, white, fiery ball, indifferent to Siriee's form. It even had little wings, unnecessarily beating in the air. The spirit can fly by its own free will, and had no need for the insect- like wings. It stayed in the exact spot, slowly bobbing up and down, and Link watched it with patience. Siriee did so too. Neither of them expected any single thing to happen, for anything could.  
  
I AM LIFE, a soothing but powerful voice said in Link's head.   
  
Link smiled. The successor of Death, naturally. But an immortal being, involving itself with him? He was intrigued.  
  
THE EVIL INCANTATION OF DEATH IS NOW COMPLETELY ELIMINATED, FOREVER. DEATH AND EVIL HAVE RETURNED TO THEIR ORIGINAL STASIS, BY MY INVOKING. The spirit flew slowly to Link's face. Link gasped, and Siriee edged back a bit more.  
  
NOW I SHALL RETURN YOU TO YOUR LAND, HERO OF TIME AND ISZAMI. LINK. The glowing spirit expanded, a ringing noise increasing in volume.  
  
Link was about to open his mouth to say something.  
  
CHAPTER 12: ZELDA  
  
The light diminished. He found himself, staggering and tired, standing before the closed drawbridge of Hyrule Castle. The rain was pouring down from the cloudy night sky. Familiar rumblings of modest proportions came from the lightly tinted clouds. He was still badly wounded, and now he felt it- he placed the palm of his shield hand onto his chest, over the slash wounds on his body. He yelped in pain, and his voice echoed around the walls and the steeples jutting from the roofs of the drenched castle. Water trickled down from guttering lining the base of each roof. Each large heavy drop splashed into the cold water of the moat, producing countless ripples in the already disturbed surface of it.  
  
A torchlight popped out from one of the windows closer to the drawbridge. 'Who is it?' A rough voice called out.  
  
He straightened up slightly, still grasping his chest. 'It is Link of Hyrule, the Hero of Time.'  
  
Link couldn't see a face in the window, but judging from the jolt of the light from the torch it seemed the guard was a little surprised. 'Good grief! Drop the drawbridge, fellas!' He shouted from behind the wall. 'It's Link! Someone go inform the Queen!'  
  
'Right ho.' Another guard responded back. The chains of the rusty drawbridge clanged. A latch was lifted. Then, with increasing speed, the drawbridge lowered. Link overlooked the edge of it as it came down, and into the wet courtyard of inside the castle walls. A guard watched as Link, the once healthy and prime hero they remembered, limped onto the drawbridge, clenching his chest and his bloody tunic. He was sneezing from the cold rain pattering down onto his head and dripping off the edge of his hat.  
  
'Ralph! Come over here, the boy's hurt!' It was the guard that saw him outside through the window. He rushed over to Link, and another one came to his aide. 'Come on, Link.' The guard said to him. He put Link's arm around his shoulders and carried him across. The other guard did the same with Link's right arm. He still held his sword and shield in hand, but they felt heavy in his hands. He dropped his head down, slowly shutting his eyes, sneezing.  
  
Link stared over the midsummer scene over Hyrule from the royal window. The sun was high in the cloudless sky, a nightingale joyfully flapping and curling through the sky. He slowed down, watching over the land, when another nightingale flew by it, and they both swooped out of sight A butterfly flew past the window, which made Link blink, before he continued gazing meaninglessly outwards.  
  
Siriee, who had been largely ignored by everyone, flew down to the stony window ledge. He seemed to look out onto Hyrule, too. 'Well, Link. You and I are home, at last.' He mentioned, trying to cheer. But Link ignored him. He rested his chin onto his upright arm, leaning over the ledge. He huffed.  
  
'You're thinking about Mentia, aren't you?' He asked. Link shook his head, without saying anything. They continued looking over the landscape. Birds twittered calmly from the rosebushes in the castle courtyard, among the flowerbeds sprinkled with pastel colors of the petals. Everglade forests further away carpeted the lay of the hilly land with an eye- pleasing green look. Lake Hylia sparkled in the far off distance, reflecting perfectly its lining of more forests. The whole land was peaceful, as was ISZAMI.  
  
ISZAMI.... Merely thinking about it sank Link into a deep depression. It wasn't because he wasn't able to see Mentia, or NigSek, or Pengal or any of the others again, or the fact that the beautiful country itself was now merely barren rock, but a mixture of the both. He was still in a mild disparity from it all.  
  
'Link...' He paused. 'I know what it is. But there's no more you could do about it. If there was, you probably did so without realizing it.' That somehow didn't comfort him, and he still stared out of the window.  
  
Queen Zelda walked quietly into the room, spotting Link and Siriee at the window ledge. She leaned onto the side of the door, preferring not to interrupt her brother rudely. She listened into their conversation.  
  
'It's just that....... 'Link stumbled over what he wanted to say. 'It's just that, I've been out of Hyrule for a month, now. I've seen far off places, and done outrageous things, that I didn't do in Hyrule. I've bought peace unto their lands.' His eyes dropped to look down onto the stone ledge of the window. 'I met many friends, too. Marin, Tarin, the Owl, Mentia, NigSek, Pengal...' He looked at the Faerie. 'You, Siriee.'  
  
He flew up to Link's hand. Despite claiming to be male, all Faeries seemed as sentimental as each other. It was their nature, after all. 'Look, Link. You have done your best. I saw you finish Death off as valiantly as you could in ISZAMI, and I'm sure you did equally as good in Koholint. They would have been proud of you.' Queen Zelda silently walked closer, intrigued by the interesting talk going on.  
  
But Link was still upset. 'Sure. They WOULD have been proud of me. IF they were still alive. Koholint Island was bad enough, seeing and knowing that everyone I had met then was all but a dream in the mind of the Wind Fish. But ISZAMI......' Link averted his gaze from Siriee. 'They aren't even alive anymore. And neither is the land.'  
  
When Zelda heard this, she felt pity for Link's remorse. Her face dropped into a saddened expression, watching from behind them as they conversed.  
  
'You don't know that for sure entirely.' Siriee protested. 'Life must have revived the land after you left, and the people with it. You don't know that their land is at waste now.'  
  
Link shook his head, flinging his curtained blond hair. 'It's just that there's so much I want to know, and to do. What if that land was destined to die from the start? We don't know that for certain, either. It might have been destroyed to keep the balance of good and evil. It was a good thing.' But as Link said that, he closed his eyes, for he didn't believe the very words he had spoken then.  
  
Siriee was determined. 'No, no. It was all a mistake- caused by an evil incantation of Death. The whole land was meant to be alive, still- and the same with everyone else'. The Faerie twitched his wings, and he sparkled, staring up to between the landscape outside and Link's face. Neither of them knew about Zelda, standing behind them and listening. She seemed very upset by the conversation they were both having, but decided to remain still.  
  
'And there was all the people I've met, far off in other places, who reminded me of the people in Hyrule. Marin was like Princess Zelda.' As he said this Zelda silently gasped, putting her hand up to her mouth. 'And her father Tarin, who almost reminded me of my uncle. And then, there were people who seemed totally unique. Like NigSek, the monster. And Pengal, the unusual man, who would ride abound his trusty dragon steed. And then there was........' He broke off.  
  
Siriee suggested something to him. 'Mentia?'  
  
He looked at Siriee. 'Yes. Mentia of Kench. The only woman in my life who I could truly love. The others were far off or unlikely- after a while, it turned out that Zelda was my sister, and Tarin simply vanished. But now, Mentia, the only real woman in my life, was.....' Again, he broke off. But Siriee didn't say anything, for there was nothing he could say now.  
  
Zelda, after hearing enough, broke in. 'Perhaps you would like to tell me about it, Link'. Both Link and Siriee jumped, startled by her appearance behind them. It was a month since Link had last seen Zelda, and now she was stood before him, delicately robed and garbed in clothing of royalty.  
  
For Siriee, this was the first time he had seen her. 'Princess Zelda, my liege.' Siriee floated down to the floor, possibly kneeling down to her. She smiled, appreciating the effort the little Faerie was making.  
  
'Actually, Link, I'm Queen now.' Zelda softly told him. 'My father had passed away, and when you were gone, the throne was handed down to me.' She rested herself elegantly on Link's bed, sinking down slightly in the softness of the bedding. 'Link, I heard everything. Do you want to tell your sister about it?'  
  
'I would..... rather not.' Link politely told her.  
  
She smiled again, her crystal earrings twirling around hanging from her long, pointed ears. 'Then do you want to tell me about your adventures, since you left nearly three months ago to embark to Mochaku Bay?' She turned her head as she looked at Link's face.  
  
Link couldn't deny her that part of it, at least. He sat beside her on the bed, still looking out of the window, into the rich blue sky. Another nightingale flew by.  
  
'It all began in a storm, far out at sea.......' Link started his story.  
  
That afternoon, Link told her everything. She heard about the mysterious Koholint Island first, where Link first awoke in a bed, with a pretty girl looking at him. Zelda giggled when Link said that he had called her Zelda by mistake. Similarly, she laughed when he told her of when Tarin knocked down the beehive, upsetting the angry bees who chased him around the whole island. She listened with great interest to the stories about the Ocarina songs on the island, songs like 'Ballad of the Wind Fish'. She heard about strange inhibitors of the island, and of dungeons guarded by nightmares from the Wind Fish. She heard about the stories of the Wind Fish, who awoke from his dream, and flew freely into the sky. She was happy when Link told her of the seagull that made Link think of Marin, as he was left out at sea with the remains of his ship.  
  
Then she heard of the ship, owned by Mentia, that picked him up and took him the rest of the way to Mochaku Bay. She heard of their trip they had around the wondrous land of ISZAMI, and of the dangers wielded by the mystifying Angels Four. She heard of the monster of the mountain who became friends with them, confusion struck her when she heard about the two halves of his personality, which literally argued with each other on occasions. She heard of the small Strange of the forest, who spoke with unusual accents and looked very different to the Hylians. She heard of the dragon Nektaa, which the leader of the Strange had befriended at a young age and was his pet and steed. She listened eagerly when Link came to tell them of the individual fights with the three members of the Angels Four. She was horrified when she heard of Mentia's near- death with Link's first encounter with Death. She was distraught when she finally heard about the demise of everyone and everything in the land, and almost saluted Link when he told her of his fate. He finished off with him, appearing outside the drawbridge of Hyrule Castle, late last night.  
  
Zelda kept silent, glancing to Link from the corner of her dark yet daintily mascara- tipped eyes. 'I understand your anger, brother.' Zelda sympathized with him. 'Perhaps we can talk about it some other time' Neither of them said anything as Zelda slowly got up and walked down the corridor. Her footsteps echoed more as she walked away from Link's room.  
  
That evening, Link rapped his knuckles onto the door of the thatched cottage, only a few minutes walk into the forest from Hyrule Castle. Link put his ear up to the door, and listened. Something smashed on the floor, followed by a grumbling from an old man inside. When he heard the sodden footsteps he straightened up again, facing the door. Siriee popped out from behind him and floated to beside his head.  
  
'Who could that be now. I hope it isn't another of those-' the man muttered pompously as the door creaked open. Then he looked up to Link, smiling.  
  
'Hello uncle.' Said Link, when he looked at him.  
  
The old man's face suddenly sobered and smiled a wide, joyful smile. 'Well if it isn't little Link!! Come here, you.' They both met and gave each other a manly hug, Link towering over the middle aged, near to senior man. Tears squeezed out of his eyes, tears of happiness.  
  
'I haven't seen you for months, Link! How have you been?' He lead Link into his modest home, barely decorated with anything unnecessary. Torches, spades, other tools and equipment were dotted here and there inside the walls of the thatched cottage. His bed rested against one wall, opposite the small oak table on the other side of the one- roomed house.  
  
Link's uncle turned around to gaze onto Link. He then changed his gaze to the left of Link's face. 'I see you've acquired a new friend on your travels.' He mentioned.  
  
Link looked to his left, at the little red glowing Faerie. 'Oh. This is Siriee. I met him on an adventure of mine.' Siriee floated between the two, making a little courtesy in the air. 'Nice to meet you.... Urrrrr..'  
  
'You can call me uncle. I'm not bothered.'  
  
'Okay, uncle.' Siriee corrected.  
  
'Link. Sit down. I want to hear of your adventures. You must have done some wonderful things when you left Hyrule.'  
  
Link sighed. He sat down onto the bed, and, as he did with Queen Zelda, told him everything from the start.  
  
Link's Uncle smiled. 'So you found someone you were interested in?' He inquired. He sat down at the table, next to the open, crackling fire, casting a shadow along the polished planks of the floor, against the yellow glow from the log fire. A small square window showed that the sun was setting beyond the edge of the forest, and the sky was becoming an orange hue. It contrasted dreamily with the seemingly black treetops.  
  
Link looked down at the polished floor, his eyes following the grain of the planks of wood. 'Yes, uncle. I did find someone. Someone who I cared for greatly.'  
  
His uncle, unfortunately, was not really the sympathetic type. He was unable to consolidate anyone with problems they were having, preferring not to hear about them at all. But he tried his best with Link, still being a polite person. He patted Link on the back of his green tunic, sewn up when he was in Hyrule Castle. 'If I was any good at this, you would feel better.' He admitted.  
  
Link smiled weakly. 'I appreciate you help, uncle.' He thanked him for listening, bid farewell after eating a modest meal that his uncle was preparing for himself- he had made too much of it anyway, he explained- and left the cottage. With Siriee they both followed the path down and around the perch his uncle's cottage was on, and into the forest again. Slowly he strolled under the leaves of the trees, back out into open space where the sky was visible, and the Castle overlooked him as he walked closer. The evening was closing in to night, and the sky was now becoming more of a violet hue. Everything was now just dark, made darker by the contrasting flickering flames hung by torches in baskets around the Castle wall. As he looked through into the inside of the castle he could see people walking around, holding torch lights, which floated around like little fireflies.  
  
One light, however, was getting bigger. The person who was carrying it was walking out of the castle grounds. In fact, he was running out of the castle altogether. The light carrier ran across the drawbridge, and onto the other side. It stopped at the edge of the bridge, looking around, then ran again. Now it was heading for Link, and he could hear the panting of the holder of the torch.  
  
He reached Link, tired out. 'Link!' He gasped. 'You're wanted at the Castle. Queen Zelda says it is urgent.'  
  
'Urgent?' Link asked rhetorically.  
  
The boy nodded. 'Come quick!' The servant boy ran back over the drawbridge, back into darkness. He could hear the pattering of his feet cross the wooden drawbridge, onto gravely ground, and into the courtyard.  
  
Link arrived back at the castle, as fast as he could. The insides of the castle was bathed in relaxing lighting, supplied by the baskets of fire on the walls around. They lined the whole corridor, parallel with the matted red carpet embodied with Hylian patterns around the sides of it. At the far end of the corridor, four guards stood side by side at the base of the throne, Zelda stood from her seat. Link slowly passed along the corridor, by each flickering flame, standing up to the new Queen of Hyrule. He modestly bowed in front of the four observing guards, to show his appreciation.  
  
Zelda waved her hand, and the guards uniformly turned, clanking their armor suits. Then they marched past the two, down into branching off corridors. Link glanced to the Queen.  
  
'Zelda. You said you wanted to see me, urgently.' Link asked her.  
  
She lowered her head slightly, looking at Link from the top of her eyes, and beamed a smile at him. 'A few minutes ago, I had someone visit Hyrule castle with an urgent message, from a far off land in dire trouble.' Link prepared himself for a further task to accomplish from Zelda. But she carried on. 'They do not need our assistance, but they need to talk with the fabled Hero of Time'. Link looked at her. Why would they want to confer with, and address, the Hero of Time if their fighting land didn't need help?  
  
Zelda stepped over to a dark doorway, looking back to her brother. 'She said you might know her'. With that, Link heard footsteps from the corridor from beyond the doorway.  
  
It can't be, Link thought.........  
  
Mentia stepped out of the shadows with great dignity. Her cape flowed from behind her like a silken violet river, plushed by her soft, golden hair. Whip attached to her belt, she stopped and looked to Link, from under a curl of light hair. She raised a smile.  
  
'Mentia!' Link exclaimed. Both he and her ran for each other, meeting in the end. He spun her around, hugging her deeply with a ultimate serious hug which she would never leave him from.  
  
'Hello again......'  
  
'.....Link, Hero of Time.' Nigrowb and Sekapook greeted. NigSek crouched to pass under the stone archway, straightening again as he entered the throne room. Pengal followed behind, and Nektaa effortlessly squeezed her narrow body through the doorway.  
  
After a loving consolidation, Link backed away from Mentia. For the first time in his life he was crying, but he was crying for joy. 'But, but how.....' He stuttered.  
  
'The spirit of Life. 'Mentia reassured him.  
  
Pengal added to the explanation. 'He decided that you deserved more than what you got, after putting your mortal and soul existence on the line. So them lot in the Sacred Realm decided fair's fair, and granted what you wanted the most- Our land, and all of the people, back to normal.'  
  
NigSek stepped forward. 'Afterwards, I found out from Korut about the direction in which Hyrule was....' Said Nigrowb.  
  
'Actually, it was I who found it out from Korut.' Sekapook interrupted.  
  
Nigrowb swiveled his half of the face to look at Sekapook. 'How could you say that? He was speaking to NigSek!'  
  
'But if you looked closely, you could see he was looking more to my side of NigSek.'  
  
Nigrowb huffed. 'Why do you start arguing about petty things, Sekapook?'  
  
'It's you that carries them on, Nigrowb.' The other half snapped back.  
  
'Well I wish you would just stop it now. It's highly annoying when you've lived with it for six hundred years.'  
  
'Oh yeah?' Sekapook continued. 'I've had to live with being at the rear end of the name for that long. Why can't it be 'SekNig' instead?'  
  
Nigrowb huffed. 'Sekapook, you just do not get the idea. NigSek is justly and honorable. SekNig is just stupid. Besides, I'm the knowledgeable one.'  
  
That last comment from Nigrowb triggered one of the arms on Sekapook's side of the body to smack him in the face. One of Nigrowb's arms returned by grabbing a palmful of Sekapook's hair, yanking his head back. The two then squabbled, in front of the others in the room, astounded by their short tempers and mad argument. Zelda hadn't seen anything like it in her life.  
  
The two heads paused, one had their hand pulling at the other's nose, the other tugging at a horn on the other head. They looked around at the startled people in the throne room, occurring to them that they had been watched during their minor scrap. Both stopped what they were doing, stood upright in the presence of the four persons from royalty line, and formed their heads together to end any future fights. 'I'm sorry about that'. He apologized to Link, Mentia, Pengal and Zelda. 'We've been like that for centuries.'  
  
'I'm sure it has been.' Zelda politely remarked.  
  
Mentia looked back to Link. 'We found out how to get to Hyrule. We chartered a map, so we can pass between Hyrule, Kench, and ISZAMI. Furthermore.' She added, edging closer to him. 'My mother has agreed peace at long last with Kench. She needs me to assist her no more. In fact, she would like for me to visit other lands, to meet other people....' She stared once again into Link's eyes with her own deep red pupils. 'We can be together, at long last. You and me, as long as we live.' She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, his hands finding themselves around her waist again.  
  
Link looked over at the others. They stared at the two deeply affectionate people before them. Zelda once again smiled and nodded her head at him, the robes hanging from her head hanging down when her head lowered. He was interrupted by Mentia, who had planted a kiss squarely onto his mouth. As the tingle passed through him he closed his eyes and embraced her. Between the bouts of romantic feeling passing to every part of his body, he had time to think about his reward that Eda and the spirits had granted him. His first one came to him the night before, and the second was occurring, and had come to see him, in the profound silence of the throne room of Hyrule Castle.  
  
The prosperity of the land of ISZAMI, shown through the one he could, and did, love.  
  
THE END  
  
By /a very, very tired/ Sovan Jedi. 


End file.
